


They Better Believe It

by FireLordIroh



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Billy is a Smart Boy, Claustrophobia, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, I gave them all trauma, I'm not quite sure, Influencer AU, Jason's in the NFL, Kim's a Sing/Songwriter/Dancer, Lilapsophobia, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Sexual Abuse, Past Suicide Attempt, Trini's a Twitch Streamer, Zack Does Parkour, probably eventual smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:55:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29894547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireLordIroh/pseuds/FireLordIroh
Summary: Trini is a gaming Twitch streamer/YouTuber. Kim is a singer/dancer/songwriter. Kim’s fanbase wants to know more about her life. Kim’s PR team also wants her to branch out, to reach more of an audience. They set up a stream for Kim and Trini; merging the singing and gaming fan bases, they hit it off and the fans think that they’re dating. Kim’s PR team thinks it would be a great idea if they continued to do the streams and maybe date.Fake dating/influencer au
Relationships: Billy Cranston/Jason Lee Scott/Zack Taylor, Jason Lee Scott/Zack Taylor, Kimberly Hart/Trini, Zack Taylor & Trini
Comments: 8
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you're waiting for me to update something else, it's coming I just get distracted and have some good ideas that I hyper-fixate on. I just love Trini and Zack being siblings and Diana being their mom.

As always Zack was reading off from the comment section. “Here’s a fun one. Trini are you single?”

Trini laughed before focusing back on her game, “Yes, I’m single, but I am looking to mingle. Zachary has been wanting me to get back out there.” Trini was completely focused on the game while she talked, it’s what made people enjoy her content. “It’s been very difficult. I’ve got a huge past and not everyone is able to understand that.” 

Both Trini and Zack had opened up publicly about their experiences from the orphanage. They had both gotten the roughest of the abuse. After they were done using them as punching bags Trini would be sent into the cupboard and Zack would be sent out and locked out on the roof. Trini had claustrophobia and Zack had Lilapsophobia and Astraphobia. They both never outgrew their trauma and Diana had assured them that it was okay as long as they remembered that they are valid and that Diana is here to support them. 

Trini and Zack did lots of fundraisers for Diana’s organization. They talked about their pasts, fully and publicly which had scared them a lot, but they felt much better after knowing that their stories had been seen and heard and helped someone. It was one of the first times Trini had used her Twitch channel. The people loved to see her play video games while also acknowledging Trini as a person and asking her questions. 

“Here’s another good one, do you have your eye on anyone?” Trini was still focused on the game and answered easily.

“Not really. I haven’t been seeking a romantic relationship and I want all of my friends to stay in the friendzone.” After Trini and Zack had shared their stories and never received any hate, they had begun to be much more open with their supportive fanbase. It was Trini’s channel, but Zack helped her in any way that he could. He helped Diana a lot with her organization and just had a part-time job at a parkour studio. He taught people how to use their bodies to do things that they might think are impossible for them to do. 

Both Trini and Zack were very happy with their careers, but they both had shit luck with dating and romantic relationships. “Here’s one that isn’t a question about your dating life. What is your ideal dinner?”

“That sounds a little date-like, but I’ll let it slide. I think my answer would be simple. I’m not too hard to please. Sometimes.” Trini winked at the camera, before refocusing on the game. “I would just want it to be special, to mean something. Zack and I have dinners with Diana every Saturday and no matter the food, afterward, I always look back and enjoy the time I spend with them.” Trini remembered the question and continued. “I guess my ideal dinner would be one where I could just hang out with the people I love.”

“Great answer, T! I love you too.” Zack had scrolled through the list before noticing the time. “Speaking of our family dinner; Diana will be here soon. Bye guys! Thanks for coming around.” Zack ended the stream. “You really don’t have your eye on anyone, T?”

Trini shook her head “No I really don’t.” Trini opened her phone to check her emails. “Z, this is weird I have an email from Pterodactyl Records. I’m not in music.”

“Open the email. Maybe they want to donate money or something.” Zack walked to Trini to look at the email over her shoulder. “Woah.”

“Yeah.” The part both of them focused on was “We are asking you if you would like to collaborate with one of our singers, Kimberly Hart. If you are interested, please respond with one of these dates and the address where you record.” Trini read the email out loud. “This is legit, legit. I have seen so many fake emails. This is either the long con or real.”

“Call the number.” Trini nodded at Zack and called the number on the phone.

“Hi. This is Trini Prince. I’m calling about Kimberly Hart, yes.” Trini put the phone on speaker so Zack could also hear.

“Ms. Prince, how can I help you.”

“Just Trini is fine. I was just wondering about how the collaboration would work.”

“Of course, can I transfer you to the head of PR? His name is Zordon Reed. He’s in charge of collaborations and all other PR things relating to Pterodactyl Records.”

“I’d be happy to speak with him.”

“Transferring you now.” The hold music played for fifteen seconds before a guy answered.

“Hello?” His voice sounded rough and leader-like.

“Yes, hi. I’m Trini Prince. I was sent an email about a collaboration with Kimberly Hart. I was just looking for more information about that?”

“Yes. Am I just talking with you or do you have a manager or agent I need to speak to?”

“You’re on speaker with me and my brother, Zack. There’s no agent or manager.”

“I will go on to say this. We gave you a select few dates if those dates don’t work, send us some dates that do. Send us the address that you want to meet at. It can be a house, a gaming studio, or an apartment. Anywhere that there wouldn’t just be extra people around and you can record.”

“Okay, I can do that. How’s this going to work? What do I need to do here?”

“That’s easy, you just teach Kimberly how to play video games, she can talk about her upcoming stuff. I’ve seen the way that you operate, you can have Zack ask you guys chat questions” Zack smiled and did a little fist pump at that. “If you guys are compatible, you can look forward to more collaborations in the future.” Trini looked at Zack, Zack nodded enthusiastically. 

“If you could excuse me for one moment, Zordon.” Trini muted herself on the call. “This isn’t a scam, that’s for sure. This is legit. I think we should do it. Maybe we can even get Kimberly to participate at some of our charity events.”

“Yeah, T. Do it.” Zack then left not wanting to be around knowing that it might pressure his sister one way or the other. Trini unmuted the call.

“I’d be happy to do the collaboration. I believe the date and time for the third option work for me. I can send you my address or I can recite it for you?”

“Recite. It’ll be safer for your privacy.” Trini recited her house address. They went over a few more legal things and confirmed the date. Trini hung up after they both got the necessary information.

“Zack! Diana’s almost here!” Zack hurried down the stairs fixing up his hair. Trini never bothered with the formalities with Diana, she had already seen her at her worst. What was so bad about her seeing her the way she looked every day.

Diana used her spare key to Trini and Zack’s house and when she opened the door, her two kids came running at her, full force and piled into a group hug.

“Diana!” Diana laughed at the response she was getting just from walking through the door. 

“Hello, little ones. Anything new going on?” Zack poked Trini in the ribs.

“Trini here just got an offer for a collaboration with Kimberly Hart. Trini, of course, accepted.” Diana got that excited look on her face and went to hug Trini.

“I did accept. It’s a good opportunity, what if I’m able to convince her to do some charity work for the organization too? That could be amazing.” Trini went on rambling about all the good this collaboration would do for her.

“Alright, little one, let’s get cooking.” Trini and Diana cooked as Zack cleaned up the eating space. “I was able to catch some of your streams. I’ve always wondered how you’re able to stay so focused while also answering questions.”

“It’s pretty simple. Mostly my hands are on muscle memory with my eyes and my brain is thinking about the questions. It’s a little harder with new games when I don’t know everything that’s going on.”

“That’s very impressive. I’m glad that you’ve found something to do that you love.” Diana kissed the top of Trini’s head.

“We both did.” Trini turned to Zack and smiled.

“Now we have to work on your dating lives. Especially you, little one.”

“I would not appreciate talking about my relationships with my mother and my brother. I would rather talk to Billy. He gives better advice. Who is there even to date? I became an influencer by the time I was nineteen. There’s not a large dating pool for people who wouldn’t just use me for my money.” Diana could only nod in agreement, by the time she was twenty-five she was a business legend; making millions, now she has two kids and runs an organization that helps orphanages up and running avoiding abuse and bankruptcy. 

“You’re only twenty-two. You should be out there enjoying yourself.” Trini shook her head.

“I can’t. Public image is very important and we all know how I feel about alcohol.” They all understood clearly. “I know I’m only twenty-two, but I’m also only twenty-two. I still have time.”

Diana felt that Trini was making some great points today. Diana set the food on the table and signaled to her kids that dinner was ready. “I’m glad that we can make time for these dinners on Saturdays. I miss you kids so much. I wish that you still lived at home with me.” Both kids shook their heads. They would love to have Diana around all the time, but they also valued being able to show off their accomplishments. They bought a house together. They started a new life, away from the shelter that Diana provided them. They were both learning how to live in the world.

Neither of them went to college, they wanted to do what made them happy. Zack took a course on how to do parkour and did all the proper training to teach classes a few times a week at a parkour studio. Trini built up her brand with her Twitch streaming. Trini loved playing video games, she loved the support of her fans. 

“I know, I know. I miss you two. I’m glad you’re my children, little ones.”

“We love you too, mom.” It had taken a year for them to call Diana ‘mom’. After she had been around for both of them without judgment, they felt loved and safe. 

When Zack and Trini were fifteen Diana had come to the orphanage that Trini and Zack had both called their home for the past seven years. Diana saw the condition that the orphanage was in, she thought it was abandoned. She found Zack on the roof and helped him come down to the main area. Zack immediately rushed to Trini, who was in terrible condition. 

Trini was knocked unconscious from both her injuries and being deprived of food and water. Both Zack and Trini were only given a small amount of education, only up to a fifth-grade level. The rest of the orphans were treated very well, they were given enough food, water, and education; none of the other kids were being abused. 

Diana had adopted Trini and Zack right then and took them to the hospital to assess their injuries. They were both healing properly and would survive. After Trini and Zack were put into recovery and therapy, Diana and Bruce started an organization that would help to fund orphanages and assess them to make sure that the living conditions were suitable. 

Diana took them to her home and (with Bruce’s help) homeschooled them. Trini and Zack were very intelligent and were done with ten years of schooling within two years. Diana had started to have Bruce hire college-level professors. When both kids were eighteen they had wanted to share their stories with the world, if they could help even one person they wanted to. Who was Diana to object?

After Trini and Zack told their stories people took quite an interest in them; Trini had started doing gaming streams to raise money and gained such a following that she asked Diana to help her figure out how to make it her career. Zack had more fun bantering with Trini on her streams, Trini eventually offered him a permanent spot on her channel. 

Trini was twenty when she asked Zack if he wanted to buy a house with her. Zack was wondering if it was all a prank and was almost brought to tears. After Trini had convinced Zack that this wasn’t a prank, they went to Diana to ask her to help them find a house. Diana was sad to lose her children but knew that they loved her too much to not visit. Diana had found them the house that they were currently in and Trini and Zack bought it.

Diana missed her kids, and Zack and Trini missed Diana. Soon after the kids moved, they put in place Saturday dinners, they would eat dinner together at least every Saturday. 

“I had a date with that football player that’s been coming into the gym.” 

“You didn’t tell me that, homeboy! How’d it go?” Trini was sad that Zack didn’t tell her, but understood that he wanted to tell Diana and Trini at the same time. 

“His name is Jason, he’s really sweet, kind, and chivalrous-” Zack was interrupted by Trini.

“Just get to the point. We all know you just want to talk about how he is.”

“Trin, sure, it started out that way but he is really sweet. I can see myself falling for him, maybe I already am.” That changed Trini’s demeanor, she was proud and happy that her brother could find someone to love. “But oh Gods, his abs!” Trini lightly laughed at Zack.

“There he is.” 

“Thanks, Trin.” Trini nodded as Diana looked serious.

“Who is this boy? How serious is this relationship? If it’s serious when do I get to meet him?” Diana went into protective mom mode, the siblings laughed, Diana’s mask almost broke to join in on the laughter.

“It’s Jason Scott, he’s an NFL star. It’s pretty serious this was date number five. He asked me to be his boyfriend and I said yes. He wants to meet you, with how much I talk about you. I thought I would ask to see if he could come to the next family dinner.”

“Of course you can. Next week I’m doing my collab with Kimberly; she might stay for dinner considering I finish up my streams when Diana texts us that she’s leaving the house.”

“Full house on Saturday?”

“I guess so, we’ll just have to rock it!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wrote a long chapter.
> 
> We get to learn more about Trini and Zack's past as well as Kim's 
> 
> Warnings:  
> Sexual abuse/sexual assault/non-con/rape/domestic violence/child abuse/general abuse/suicide attempts (person is sharing their story)  
> I will add these to the tags as well, but in case you don't check them. I believe I got them all. Let me know if I missed something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I give these people so much trauma. This is what happens when I try to write without an outline.
> 
> Warnings:  
> Sexual abuse/sexual assault/non-con/rape/domestic violence/child abuse/general abuse/suicide attempts (person is sharing their story)  
> I will add these to the tags as well, but in case you don't check them. I believe I got them all. Let me know if I missed something.

Diana left after dinner leaving Zack and Trini to just hang around. “So how did things go with Zordon?”

Trini shrugged, “There was a lot of legal stuff I had to fill out. He texted me Kimberly’s phone number to set up extra stuff for the stream. I don’t know what we should play, could we let fans decide? I’m not really sure how to do this. The only people I’ve ever collaborated with are you, Diana, Billy, and Uncle Barry. Barry was an impromptu thing too, I never planned it. Billy comes and does strategy games with me sometimes and he’s our ‘phone a friend’ on everything. I just- I don’t know how to handle this.” 

Zack looked at her intently. “One, you got Kimberly Hart’s number and didn’t immediately call it?” Trini nodded, confused, “We’ll come back to that. Two, treat it like a stream with Billy or I. Ask her what she wants to do and just hang out with her, treat her like you would us. She’s a celebrity, you know how that is. People treat her like the ground she’s walked on turns to gold. Make a point to be yourself, don’t try to be anyone. How would you ask me what I wanted to do for one of our streams?”

Trini understood what her brother was doing. “You’re different, I’d call you a dumbass then tell you what I wanted to do.” Zack rolled his eyes and signaled for her to continue, “Fine. Ugh. How’s this ‘Hey, Zack. What do you want to do for the stream on Saturday? I was thinking we could do a poll and let the fans decide.’” 

Zack smiled and nodded. “T, that’s perfect. Text or call?”

Trini wasn’t quite sure. Calling her would get an immediate response, but then she might have to hold a conversation with the girl afterward, a text could go unanswered leaving her stressed for days. “Call. If she doesn’t pick up I can text. I’ll go downstairs so your dumb ass doesn’t interrupt anything and make her cancel.” 

Zack shrugged, he could not be trusted. When Barry had told them about this kid who was stellar at cars, Billy, Zack wanted to meet him. Trini already had; Billy and Trini hit it off very well. They were two dorks in a pod. Zack was impressed when Barry told him that he was better with cars than Barry was. When Zack and Billy first met Zack was so impressed that he made a fool out of himself.

“Don’t come down.” The entire downstairs was Trini’s domain, when they bought the house the basement wasn’t finished and Trini took it upon herself to fix it up. It was by no means a small basement, the basement on its own was like a mini house. Trini even put a mini kitchen down there. A lot of Trini’s time was spent downstairs; it gave her clear space to do what she wanted. 

Trini’s work was in their gaming room, but her workspace was in the basement. She planned everything down there, there was a guest bedroom, which was half Trini’s considering how much time she spent down there. Trini didn’t need space from Zack, but she did need space to herself. Zack knew Trini’s boundaries and stuck to them, Trini did the same for Zack.

Sometimes, when there was a big storm and Zack couldn’t be upstairs anymore she let him into her space in the basement, makes him hot cocoa, and put on his favorite shows. Trini and Diana soundproofed the basement so every time Zack went down there, he was able to forget about the raging storms. He was able to take comfort in Trini.

Their whole house was on a very open plan so there wouldn’t be any trouble of either of them thinking that they were trapped. All of the cupboards that were visible to guests had hole handles in them, cupboards that couldn’t be locked. 

Trini’s basement set up had all doors taken off except the one to the bathroom and there was a heavy curtain for the door to the guest bedroom. Trini could easily install the door if any guests that they had needed one. It was their third guest bedroom, so it never hosted guests, it was more of a spare room for Zack and Trini to be comforted. 

They could be comforted in their own rooms, but sometimes they needed to be in a space that was wholly theirs. Diana, Zack, and Trini were the only ones that built the space, if they needed help they would take a class on how to do it. It was theirs and no one else could take claim.

When Trini got down to her desk, she hit the call button. What she wasn’t expecting was for Kimberly to pick up on the first ring. “Hello?” Kimberly sounded sleepy.

Trini’s eyes widened, “Oh, shit. Did I wake you up?” 

“No, no. I woke up from a nap a while ago, I guess I might still sound sleepy.”

“A little. This is Trini Prince.”

“I know.” There was a pause, “Zordon gave me your number, he told me to expect a call some time this week. This is Kimberly.”

Trini let out a small laugh at the fact that the girl felt the need to introduce herself. “I was wondering if we could talk about Saturday. I just have a few things. This won’t take long.”

On the other end of the call, there was some shuffling. “Take all your time, I don’t have anything else going on today. What’s up?”

“I was wondering what we should play.”

“Play?” Kimberly paused. “For the video games, right. Sorry, I’ve never played any video games you’re going to have a lot on your hands. I’ve only played Mario Kart. Let me tell you, I’m very bad.”

Trini laughed, the girl was being very open. Trini didn’t quite know why, but it made her very happy that Kimberly trusted Trini enough to be herself around her. “I was thinking we could do a poll, ask the fans. I don’t know if you wanted to announce it like that or what plans you had for announcing the stream. The only people I’ve collaborated with are my family and Billy; although, Billy might as well be family. I’ve never really done this before.”

“I can have Zordon figure out a post with the games. I’m not too great with announcement wordings.” Kimberly laughed at a memory. “One time I tried to post a concert date with ‘See you there, bitches!’ yeah, that was shut down quickly. We should pick four games out as options.”

“I have everything gaming, I think I even have a GameCube and an Atari somewhere around here.” Trini knew exactly where both of those consoles were, what could she say she loved the classics. “I’m thinking we could throw out a wide variety; something calm like Gris, something multiplayer like Moving Out, or Call of Duty, we could perfect your Mario Kart gaming,” Kimberly let out a laugh and a thoughtful hum. “My usual stream is about four hours. I start after I’m done with lunch and both Zack and I are ready. We could start the stream at about one, which gives you time to come over here and be ready. We can play more than one game in four hours.”

“That we can. I’m liking the options. I sent a text to Zordon and he said that we could send out an open-ended ‘What game should we play?’. He can have someone compile the top few options.”  _ When did she even have time to text Zordon? Oh right, you can do more than one thing at a time.  _ “How does that sound?”

Trini hummed, she liked the idea. “That’s great. I only really had one other thing, unless you had something?”

There was more shuffling on Kimberly’s end. “I didn’t have anything else. I wasn’t really expecting you to call until tomorrow.”

Trini cringed. “I didn’t really think about that, sorry. Zack told me I should call. It would soothe my anxiety to know what we were doing for the stream.” Trini took a deep breath. “I live a ways away from L.A. I could never handle it all the way out there. I drive in with Zack whenever we get invited to stuff. I’m assuming you probably live in some apartment complex out there?”

“That I do.”   


“I live about two hours out depending on where you live in L.A. that could be shorter or longer. Saturdays are the days that Diana comes over for dinner, Zack’s bringing his boyfriend. Not the point. Zack and I host dinners every Saturday at our place, this might be a weird question and you’re obviously not obligated to say yes, but you do live a ways away-” Trini took another deep breath. “Zack and I are offering for you to come and stay for dinner, if you live really far away you can also stay the night. Zack and I have guest bedrooms.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose.”

Trini furrowed her brows, “You wouldn’t be imposing, I just offered.”

“When most people say stuff like that it’s a courtesy, they don’t really mean it.”

“What? Why would someone offer that if they didn’t mean it! I mean it. I talked with Diana and Zack about it today at dinner. We’re always happy to have more guests over. Especially if it would keep someone from driving through L.A. at night. That can get really dangerous. It’s just dinner and if you need a place to stay; there’s not anything fake about this offer. I’m serious.”

Kimberly responded almost immediately “Where do you live?”

Trini’s confusion came back. “Zordon didn’t give you the info?”

Kimberly let out a laugh. “I wasn’t really expecting you to call until tomorrow.”

“Oh right. I live out in Angel Grove.”

“I grew up around there, in Reefside.” 

“So you’re familiar?” 

“Definitely. Angel Grove is only about an hour out from my place. If it will ease your mind I can stay over for dinner. I’ll stay the night, I don’t like driving at night in L.A.”

Trini laughed softly, “No one should.”

“Is there anything I should know before I come over on Saturday?”

Trini thought about it. “There’s nothing really. I’ve never done a collaboration with someone I didn’t really know beforehand, even with Billy, he was working with my Uncle and that’s how we first met. He’s great with cars. If he didn’t make it in his gaming career, he’d make it far with mechanics. He was one of the only kids Zack and I knew after Diana adopted us. We never made friends. The orphanage definitely wasn’t a great place for us to make friends. Everyone either kicked us, punched us, shoved us. We don’t really have social skills and we’re celebrities. Zack got way more comfortable with it than I did.” 

Kimberly was very interested in listening to Trini talk and she had nowhere else to be.

Trini could tell that Kimberly was actually listening to her, so she continued. “People were never nice to us until Diana. Zack and I only had each other for eight years. We weren’t even really friends, we just looked out for each other. We had one real conversation and it was when we were thirteen. We didn’t know much about the world, they didn’t educate us; Zack and I both came to the orphanage when we were seven. They educated us to a fifth-grade level, but they didn’t really educate us. We tested at a fifth-grade level when we were seven, they were scared of us. We never really figured out the why, just knew how it was. They abused us from the start. We didn't really know anything was wrong until we were thirteen. I asked Zack ‘Why do they treat the other kids differently?’ he didn’t know, he offered to run away and see the world. They found us three days later, the abuse got much worse after.”

Trini took a breath to calm herself. This was something that Zack and Trini had talked about with the public but never talked about outside of the first telling of their entire story. The compilations of their story came out to be seventy-two hours. It took them months to film. They posted the full version and two highlight versions. They were proud of it. They talked about everything they had experienced from the time that they were seven. People watched the full version the most, which surprised them all. The organization received a lot of donations and volunteer offers afterward. 

“That was when they started to lock Zack on the roof and me in the cupboards. They didn’t want us to escape. One thing that Zack and I somehow managed to do was in those three days, I got a job and Zack got a job. We were thirteen and thriving more than we ever had in the orphanage. We never got paid for our work, but Zack and I estimated that if they never found us, we could’ve lived on our own. We never truly figured out how the world worked. That’s something Zack and I will never regret and always regret. We’ve only seen the worst of the world.

“Zack and I went from the orphanage to Diana. We had only a fifth-grade education and nothing else that we knew about the world. Diana had traveled all around the world and told us stories about all the trouble that she and Bruce got into. We were homeschooled, we never had to deal with high school. We would’ve been bullied, Diana didn’t want us to go through that. Both Zack and I have a general college degree, technically, just from homeschool. I started my Twitch channel for charity streams and people loved it. I loved it. I made it my career, as you know. 

“My Twitch channel blew up and I became an influencer. I don’t have to deal with a lot of the hate aspects of being a celebrity. I get homophobia and some other kinds of hate, but I’ve dealt with that my whole life, it’s nothing compared to being abused for eight years. I’ve never been a normal kid. At nineteen I was thrown into a world of fake people, so I stayed away from that. Billy was Zack and I’s only friend, he wasn’t homeschooled with us, he went to the local high school. Billy was around for it all, he was different, just like us. We’ve considered him a brother our whole lives.”

Trini laughed at a memory, “Zack did have a freak out the first time he met Billy. I already knew Billy because I spent some time around Barry’s shop. It took me three months before I spoke to him. It was calming to just watch him work just like Uncle Barry. When I finally spoke to him he didn’t say that I was weird or that I was a freak, he didn’t hit me like new people did that come into the orphanage. I said, ‘Hi, I’m Trini. You’re good with cars.’ and Billy just talked about how much he liked cars. He was like Zack and I; told he was different from a young age.

“Zack never went to the shop, he liked to stay home and bake cookies with Diana. When I brought Billy over for the first time, Zack knew who he was. He dropped the cookie batter on himself and then tried to play it off as something that he just did sometimes. Billy didn’t care about that first interaction. He never minded that Zack and I were different. He gave us something we never had; friendship. It was new to all of us. Zack was around for eight years then became my brother. What we both have with Billy is different than what we have for each other.”

Trini smiled, “When I told Billy that I wanted to make gaming my career he supported me and helped me with everything. He knew all the facts, best cameras, newest games, fighting styles. When Billy wanted to start up his own gaming career I was able to help him back. Our lives were messy, but we’re there for each other.” Trini laughed a little. “I guess that was a very long explanation about how I don’t have good social skills and a great example.”

Kimberly spoke softly through the phone. “You have much better social skills than any other person I’ve worked with. You’re real when everyone else in this world is fake. You just offered your home to me and meant it all so I wouldn’t have to drive through L.A. in the dark. Trini, you may not have lived in the world or went to high school and interacted with many people throughout your life, but you’re one of the best people I’ve ever talked to.

“I was a cheerleader in high school. I know, I know ‘cheerleader becomes a pop star after high school’ it’s fitting I suppose. I’ve talked to a lot of people, when someone says, ‘stay for dinner’ or ‘that’s okay, you can just stay here’ they don’t mean it, they don’t want the answer to be yes if you do say yes, they persuade you not to. I just went from being a cheerleader to being a bigger cheerleader who also sings.”

Trini laughed. She didn’t know much about the world of celebrities. She didn’t accept many invitations to things and they were able to use the excuse of ‘I live too far away’. Most of their interactions with other people were at the store. Zack and Trini were always happy to run into fans and talk to them, but they didn’t actively seek any interaction out. Trini liked talking to her fans on stream or over Twitter answering questions, but talking to someone, entertaining them when she didn’t want to. Trini could never do such a thing. She was real and honest like Diana had always taught her and Zack to be. 

With Diana’s charity, Zack was usually the one to step up and go and speak. “No matter how much of a celebrity I become, I like the shadows. Not in the literal sense because I don’t like those shadows. I’m honest with my fans. I don’t lie. I never want to lie. Being around people is hard for me, with my streams I can be honest without having to see faces and hear reactions, they aren’t close to me. They can’t reach out to hit me. I’ve been small my whole life, no one is ever afraid to hit me. After we left the orphanage with food and resources Zack was able to grow and people were scared to touch them.”

This was a hard one that she never had to talk about before, “One day when Billy and Barry were out at some convention, I was in charge of the shop. I could assess cars and fix little things and do small tune-ups. I was a good person to leave in charge. A guy came in. He was maybe six-two. He hit on me in that way that an older guy hits on a teenager. Diana taught us self-defense, but the guy was too big. He roughed me around a bit, never did anything too bad a few punches and kicks.

“I was able to find a weak spot in his left arm and dragged him out of the store. The police caught him. There was a whole thing. People aren’t afraid to do anything to me. The only reason that guy is locked up is because of the clear marks and Barry’s security cameras. Point is, I would never offer something I don’t mean and I don’t go around people that I don’t want to be around.”

Kimberly was silent for a moment. “What made you say yes then? To the offer? You don’t like being around people, especially someone new, yet you agreed to do this, why?”

Trini blushed, she was glad that Kimberly couldn’t see her. “I said yes because I thought it would be good. A good connection brings new people in. I would be able to gather more people for my monthly charity streams. I thought if it had to be anyone new to collab with it should be you. You were open about why and how your last relationship ended. I’m glad he’s rotting away in prison now. I knew that it would be okay to have someone else around that’s been through something similar to what I have. If it were someone else, I would’ve said no. 

“Zack’s so much better with handling the actual influencer parts of what we do. He’s even done a few YouTube videos with his parkour stuff and had a few people do collabs with him on that. They’re never here, in my space, in our house. When you reached out I didn’t really know what to think about it or do with it. I didn’t know it would be okay. Zack will be here, you’ve been through some rough things just like I have. I feel safe about it.”

Kim wasn’t silent, but she did take a moment to think. She eventually landed on something. “You know about my relationship with Ty?”

“It was a big thing in the Prince household. Diana was very invested, she’s always concerned about things like that happening to Zack or me. I didn’t mean to bring it up if that’s uncomfortable for you-”

“It happened a year ago. I’m fine.”

Trini was quick to respond to that. “Just because it happened a year ago, doesn’t mean you need to be better. I still get scared of cupboards. I had all of the cupboards removed from all non-public spaces in our house. There’s not even any under any bathroom sink, you just see everything. I still get scared when our neighbors shout too loudly or a dog barks late into the night. You never get to fully heal over something like this.”

“Thank you.”

The confusion evident in her voice Trini responded, “For what?”

“What do you mean for what? You just gave me a speech on how I don’t need to be better. I’m not better. It’s all so hard.”

Trini knows that distraction is better than dissection on stuff like this. “You know when Zack and I first came to Diana’s house after we were cleared from the hospital, we didn’t trust anything that she did. She brought in tutors, but she was always around, watching. Making sure nothing happened to us. When the first storm happened she found Zack and I laying on the floor of the living room, not moving. I was scared of storms as much as Zack was. 

“A storm meant that Zack was in pain. When Zack comes to me during a bad storm, it soothes me to know that he’s okay and in front of me. Diana just made some hot cocoa and sat with us the whole night. The next storm she did the same thing. She was there even when she didn’t quite know what was happening. The morning after a particularly bad storm, when Zack and I were sixteen, about a year after Diana adopted us; we called her ‘mom’. We all cried that morning and she made us pancakes.

“When we were seventeen Zack and I came out to each other in tears. We were so scared that Diana would turn into everyone else, the horror stories. We are targets, we know the statistics. Abused once, abused again. We tried so hard to not think about what would happen. Diana brought home her best friend for the first time that week. Ivy had brought her wife. A week later Zack and I came out to her, together. We were holding hands under the table. 

“We told Billy after that, Billy told us that he loved us. It was the first time he let us hug him. He’s never liked touch, it meant so much to us. We told uncle Barry and Uncle Bruce the next time we saw them. Bruce somehow got Barry to accept funding and make Zack and I cars. That man is not good with emotion.”

Kimberly was ready to talk again. “I was fresh out of high school, similar to you and Zack in that fashion, when I hit it big. I was nineteen when I had my first relationship in the world of stardom, the first guy used me for my money, the second was Ty. He was nice to me for the first month. I had two relationships in high school and one with my new life. I knew what a bad relationship was.

“Ty took me on dates and did the whole thing. In the second month, it was the first time he hit me. I said some joke in front of his friends that he didn’t like. It went on like that; he would claim I did something, hit me, apologize poorly, then do it all again. I ended the relationship a count of six times. He always came back like nothing had happened.

“I was in a relationship, he wanted things out of it. I didn’t.”

Trini’s eyes widened at the implications there. That wasn’t any part that she had been public about. “He-”

Kimberly let out a weird laugh, “Oh, he did. I never understand why people never get that part. I know I never explicitly said ‘he raped me’, but it was a relationship that I wanted no part in. A relationship that included certain elements in it. I was advised against saying anything about it to the public by my last record company, but I was able to get out of that contract and now Zordon is saying I should talk more about it. I should, but I don’t want to.

“It’s the hardest part to relive. He abused me, hit me, even cut me with a knife a few times and the hardest thing to say is those three words. He raped me. It’s not something that people talk about. I talk about everything openly except that. I talk about it with my therapist and I’ve talked about the full story with the lawyer who did press the charges, but managed to keep the public from finding that out.”

Trini sank in her chair, a few things like that had happened to her, even back at the orphanage, there was one guy that got himself off in front of her, but didn’t quite go the full distance. Trini never told those parts of her story, she managed to keep them secret from everyone but Zack and her therapist. Diana didn’t even know. Trini and Zack had a long talk about what they wanted to say, a conversation that didn’t include Diana. There were some things that they wanted to keep between them. “I understand. It’s hard to tell every part of your story.”

Kimberly was shocked into silence, those were not the words she expected. She expected a demand, ‘tell the public everything’ even a consolement. This person who she didn’t even know was understanding exactly what she needed. “How do you know?” Kimberly whispered.

Trini took the question the wrong way and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “In the orphanage, there was this guy. His name was Nathanial. He would unlock the cupboards in the middle of the night to jerk off on my face. He made threats to go further. I never had a doubt that he would. He got adopted before he could even have the chance. Something I never want to think about the outcome. When I came out to my therapist he laughed and said ‘It must be sexual trauma’. Diana never got a reason for why he was fired.

“There was another kid, this time I was older, and knew more about what was happening. I never learned this guy's name. He had gone further than the last guy. Still not the full way, but this time the guy went to my mouth. He stayed at the orphanage for a whole year. The next guy, Griffen. Spelled it all weird with the ‘e’. He was the one who went all the way. He went for it, didn’t jerk off in my face, put it in my mouth, or do any type of anything. He heard about me from the other guy and wanted to see for himself. I am grateful that this guy at least had the decency to pull out. The guy after Griffen was the new kid, Ara. He did not have the decency to pull out. I was worried for the next three months, every time.

“Ara came back so many times. It became a weekly occurrence, then a daily one. He left too. I was so thankful the day he left, but a new guy always replaced the last.” A tear slipped from Trini’s eye. “We paid attention to your story because it hit close to home. Diana doesn’t know the specifics, she just knows it happened.”

Kimberly was crying too, Trini could hear it through the phone. “I was not expecting that. I was with Ty for a little under a year and I couldn’t imagine that happening again. I don’t know if I could’ve lived through all that.”

Trini let out a small laugh to relieve some tension. “Oh trust me I tried not to. The orphanage’s goal was never to kill, they made sure Zack and I were alive and in poor condition.” Trini was fully crying now but did well hiding it.

“I can be over in fifteen minutes. What do you need?”

Trini paused. “What do I need- what are you talking about?”

“I’m coming over with some ice cream, we are going to make this a party.”

“Kimberly, it’s past midnight, don’t drive through L.A. in the dark.”

“Kim. Call me Kim. Who said I was in L.A. I’m in Reefside.”

“Oh.”

“Oh is correct, now what flavors do you like?”

“Are you at the store? How are you at the store?”

“I’m walking into the store wearing a hoodie and sunglasses to cover up the fact that I'm crying.” Kim paused to take a breath. “Now what flavors do you like?”

“Rocky road and cookie dough.”

“My kinda girl.”

Trini cringed. “I don’t like that.”

Kim was confused, “Don’t like what?”

Trini went into a small panic. She didn’t mean to say that, it was mostly reflexive. “Sorry, never mind.”

Kim still didn’t know what was happening, but she wasn’t going to just let it slide. “Trini, you’re going to tell me the whole set of your trauma and then not tell me what you don’t like?”

Trini almost laughed, Kim was right. Trini had told her the whole of her trauma but couldn’t tell her what she didn’t like about ‘girl’. “I don’t like those terms, don’t get me wrong here my pronouns are she and her, for now at least, I just feel uncomfortable with feminine terms.”

“Shit, Trini. I’m sorry.”

Kim’s response calmed Trini. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for, princess. I didn’t tell you. No one really knows much about it because I don’t feel uncomfortable with the pronouns.”

Trini could hear Kim’s hum through the phone, “Princess, huh? Where’d that come from?”

Trini started to go into another panic after coming out of the last one. “Do you not like it? It just seemed fitting. You’ve just been so kind and- fuck I’m making this worse aren’t I. I told you I didn’t have the best social skills.”

“No, I like it. ‘M just surprised. You’re not making anything worse and your social skills are fine. What, uh, instead of ‘girl’ and those feminine terms, what do you like?”

“Terms like ‘guy’, or ‘dude’, ‘person’ is fine, but I like nicknames better if you’re just talking to me and not a generalization like what you just said.”

“I’ll just have to come up with some nicknames for you then, huh?”

Trini laughed. “Zack’s got that covered. I can send you the link to his google doc. He made it after I told him that I didn’t like to be called ‘Crazy Girl’ he pouted before I told him the whole thing and now he calls me ‘Tiny T’.”

“Open your front door, I’m here and I don’t want to wake any sleeping people.”

“I don’t even know if Zack’s awake or not, so expect interrogation from him if he is.” Trini hung up, ran up the stairs, and opened the door. “Hey, Kim. I’m going to get bowls and spoons. I know it’s a sad people thing to eat out of the pint, but I’m not sacrificing my basement like that.”

Kim nodded and held up the ice cream. “Oh right, come inside, please. If you could take off your shoes, you can hang up your jacket. Do you need a change of clothes or anything? I’m expecting that you’re staying the night, but if you’re not that’s fine.” Trini cut herself off and went to go get bowls, spoons, everything that would protect her precious basement. 

“I’m staying over, it’s late. I’ll take a change of clothes, it was raining over in Reefside.” Trini tensed at the mention of rain.

“Storm? Is it heading here?”  _ Shit. _ Trini checked her phone, the storm would be coming over their house in about a half-hour. It was bad. “Zack! Fuck, Zack where are you?” Trini turned back to Kim. “I have some clothes downstairs that might fit you, you’re a bit tall. I have some stuff that I stole from Zack that will definitely fit you. I have to go get Zack. He will be joining us downstairs. Sorry, if that messes with anything you had planned for us.”

“No, no. I’m fine. It’d be nice to meet the brother. How do you feel about the term ‘sister’.”

“Avoid it.”

Kim nodded. Trini ran upstairs to grab Zack. 

“Zack! There’s a storm that’s going to be passing over the house in about a half-hour. Are you going to come downstairs?” Zack shot out of bed at the mention of a storm, they were usually so careful and checked the weather. How did they miss it?

“I’ll be down in a bit.”

Trini went to walk back downstairs then remembered their guest. “Also Kimberly Hart is in our house. See you, bro.” Trini shot out of the room before Zack could get a word out.

“I grabbed bowls and I found the ice cream scoop. I didn’t want the ice cream to melt, is there like a fridge downstairs.” Kim looked at Trini before her eyes widened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snoop-”

“Kim, it’s fine. You’re our guest. I didn’t expect you to just stand at the door and wait for me to come back. There’s a whole kitchen downstairs. I kind of live down there. It’s my space. There’s food and stuff down there too. We’re going to be down there for the whole night. I’m glad that you planned to stay over, there was no way you were going to get out of our house with a storm outside. We don’t let people drive in storms. Especially friends.” Trini smiled at Kim.

“Friends?”   


“You bought me ice cream. We’re friends for life now.”

Zack came down the stairs in his pajamas, he knew he had time. The storm wasn’t going to pass over for a while. He knew he would be safe and sheltered from the storm, but no matter how much he tried he always remembered how he felt out there in the rain he’d always get flashbacks. He couldn’t stop it. “Hey, Tiny T. Kimberly Hart is in our kitchen, you weren’t kidding.”

“Why would I kid about Kim being in our kitchen?” Trini shot a questioning look to Zack. “I never lie about guests. Especially ones that bring me ice cream.”

“You brought Trini ice cream? Prepare to be her friend for life.”

Kim laughed, the two were very sibling-like. “What ice cream do you like, Zack? I only bought cookie dough, rocky road, mint, and brownie fudge chunks.”

“And you bought her two favorite flavors. She might kiss you now.” Both Kim and Trini blushed, but Zack missed it, reaching for the brownie fudge chunks. “I’ll take this.” Zack scooped out all their bowls of ice cream and brought them downstairs, Kim told him that she liked the mint and brownie flavors mixed together. Zack only shrugged and scooped the ice cream into the same bowl.

“I’ll grab these.” Trini took the pints of ice cream to bring to the basement. She signaled for Kim to follow her. When they were all downstairs Zack set the table and Trini put the ice cream in the freezer. 

“So, Kim, what brought you here at one in the morning?” Kim looked up at Trini to see if she could answer.

Trini shrugged and answered herself, she never shied away from Zack, he was her brother. “I told her about Nathaniel, Griffen, and Ara.” 

Zack’s eyes widened and went to look at Trini. “You met her today and you told her about that. You haven’t even told Diana all about that.”

“I told her about Ty, she misinterpreted my ‘how?’ question."

Trini looked at Kim in confusion. “I did?”

“You did. I was wondering about how you knew I just wanted to be understood, to not be told ‘I’m sorry’ for once.”

“That’s what I want all the time when I tell people my story.” Trini sat down at the table, “I don’t want someone to tell me ‘sorry’ I just want them to understand, they didn’t do anything, they don’t need to apologize to me. They just need to listen, help make the change. 

Zack spoke up, “They need to listen. They need to show support, it’s hard to put it all out there and when all you receive in response is ‘I’m sorry’. I don’t need their apology. I want them to know what happened and to be aware that it’s hard. I want them to make a change. They can’t take away my past. I’m scared of storms and it sucks. We’re in the basement right now because it’s raining too hard out there for me to think of anything other than getting abused. The only door down here is the one to the bathroom because Trini can't look at them without thinking about how she was locked in one every night for at least five years.”

“It’s hard, but you learn to live. We’re in a soundproof basement that seconds as an entire living space and we can function, but we’re different.” Trini picked off right where Zack left off. “When we were fifteen and were cleared from the hospital, we went home with a person we didn’t even know to a place we knew nothing about. We had people we didn’t trust, we only had each other. Two people, us, who had never spoken before and we became brothers. You get good things one day. It’s not even, but it’s the little things.”

Kim looked around taking in her surroundings and Zack and Trini’s words. “What do you guys do when you’re streaming and there’s a storm?” Kim went for the ‘change the topic' approach, she didn’t have a response, but she had listened to everything they had said. 

Trini spoke again, Zack was just woken up and had plans to go to bed after some ice cream and some hot cocoa. “We check the weather before streams. If it storms and we’re on stream, Zack comes down here. I got better at storms, it still hurts, reminds me of Zack and I’s trauma; so I just tell the stream that we have to end early. I come down here and made us hot cocoa. Look behind you there’s a tv and my workspace can be switched out with my old gaming pc for days that we know there’s going to be a storm. When we have company we invite them down here. It’s a suitable space and our only company is people who know us and our past.” Trini got up to make some hot cocoa for all of them.

Kim laughed, “It sure is suitable, your basement is larger than my flat.”

“Flat? Isn’t that a British term?”

Kim nodded, “My dad’s British. I lived over in England until I was ten. I guess I picked up a lot of vocabulary and I still slip into the accent sometimes, especially when I’m around my family, which I have been. A lot, actually. That’s how I got here so quickly. I’m from Reefside, I like to spend time with my family when I can. It’s hard to get out here from L.A.”

“We know. We use that as an excuse-” Trini coughed at the word ‘excuse’, Zack just rolled his eyes and continued. “To not go to parties and places we’re invited to. Trini doesn’t like people, I like them more but I like to keep my distance. We stay out here, our family is here, our life is here. No matter how much fame we get. This is our home. Even if I get married, I don’t think I’d want to leave this house. My partner will just have to suck it up and Trini can soundproof more of our walls.”

“I already soundproofed your bedroom and bathroom, homeboy. What more do you want?”

“I’m not really sure. I thought it would be a funny joke.” Zack pouted, then smirked. “Cause I give-”

“Okay! Here’s some hot cocoa. No talking about your sex life. I don’t want to hear it.”

Kim laughed at the two, “Really? You wouldn’t move out?”

Trini and Zack both looked up with twin expressions of confusion, “Why would we? This place is huge. This is a rich man's rich rich housing. This place is built to support more than two people. Billy used to live with us too before he got his own place. We could both easily get two whole families living here. Plus, I signed the deed. We own this place together. It’s ours and I don’t want to move away from Trini. My partner or whoever just has to deal, Trini’s important to me and I don’t know what I’d do if I lived away from her.” 

Trini just nodded in agreement, “We could afford a large house, we talked about it. We only wanted to settle in one space. It’s even got a big enough yard to expand the house if we need to. Although, I’d have to hire people to do that. Zack, why can’t I just be an army.” Trini groaned and sipped on her hot cocoa.

Kim and Zack both laughed. “If I could be an army, I don’t even know what I’d do with an army of mes.” Kim really didn’t know, with technology she could sing her own backup. “I could produce things faster. I really have no idea. Maybe I’d start a cheerleading squad, that was something I used to want to do when I was in high school. This one girl kept forgetting to catch me.” 

Zack laughed and finished his hot cocoa. “I’m off to bed, do you want the room or?”

“Zacky, take the bed. We can pull out the couch. I can always come to join you on the bed. The bathroom is separate, so you don’t need to worry about it.” Zack nodded and went off to the room. “We aren’t going to let you drive in this weather. I can bring you upstairs to a guest room, there’s also a pullout couch if you want to sleep down here.”

“I’ll just sleep down here. Can I have that change of clothes before Zack falls asleep?”

Trini facepalmed. “I fucking forgot. Yeah, let me grab you some clothes. There are some blankets over by the couch on a rack. Feel free to burrito yourself.” Trini opened the curtain to the guest room to find Zack sound asleep on his bed. Trini rolled her eyes lovingly, changed into her own pajamas, a low-cut yellow muscle tank, and some sleep shorts, and grabbed some of her clothes that would fit Kim. 

Trini went back to find Kim burritoed on the couch. “I grabbed you some clothes that would fit you. There’s a bathroom just over there.” Trini pointed to the bathroom.

“Thanks.” Kim was having a hard time not staring at the gamer’s body. She wore such baggy clothes all the time, why? She was so hot. 

Trini pulled out the bed part of the couch and grabbed the sheets, pillows, and comforter from the chest by the wall. Trini fluffed the final pillow as Kim walked out of the bathroom. “You have everything down here.”

Trini laughed, “As I said before, I kind of live down here. This is my space. I built this entire basement with Zack and Diana’s help. I didn’t let anyone else touch a single screw. It’s my space, it’s something I can truly call mine. We bought the house, but I made this. That can’t be taken away from me.”

Kim looked around, “You made this? This is some high-quality work.”

“Yup. I need it to be nice. I installed a kitchen and bathroom. I wanted this to be a self-functioning space. I need it to be. I had nothing for so long, got scraps with a punch to the face, got water with a kick to the gut. I need something that’s mine that no one else can touch.”

“Control.” Trini looked at Kim in confusion. “It’s about control. Did you even stay awake until three am, just to do whatever you wanted?” Trini nodded. “That’s about control, there are no other moving pieces, no one else you need to take in, to account for. It’s just you. I had so little of that in my relationship with Ty. I needed something to control. My music was that for me. With my music, I could do anything and I couldn’t be told no. I put out three albums when I was with Ty, not because I had to, but because my music was the only thing I had control over.”

Trini could understand that, it made sense. “So when I stay down here for long amounts of time-”

Kim smiled, “Control. Bingo.”

Trini sat on the bed. “What do you need?”

That question took Kim by surprise. “What?”

“What do you need? I can sleep in the room, I can sleep here. I assume you’ve been spending lots of time at your parent's house in the last year because there are no traces of your relationship with Ty there. You should move by the way. What do you need to sleep soundly?”

“I’m in the process of moving actually.”

“Avoidance. What do you need? Tell me. I used to have to sleep with a stuffed animal.” She still does, but Kim doesn’t need to know that. “What do you need? You brought me ice cream and right now you’re one of my favorite people, you can’t do anything to get me to go away.”

Kim smiled, “You can stay. Having people around helps.”

“You got it, princess.” Trini clapped off the lights, one of her favorite additions to the basement. She hated light switches, but they were necessary. “You know when I called you asking what video games you wanted to play, I was not expecting you to end up in my bed.”

“Really? Because I was not expecting to buy ice cream and cry a good cry.” They both laughed for a second. “It really helped.”

Trini shuffled so she could look at Kim. “The ice cream?”

“No, well, yes, but to talk about it. Ty, being raped, the abuse. I have a therapist, but to talk about it with someone who understands. That felt so freeing to me.”

“I could never really talk about it with Zack, you know. He listens, he knows, he tries to understand; but he can’t relate to it. Diana can’t because I never really tell her about it. My therapist with his cushy life for sure can’t. It was good for me too. It’s hard to say all the words. I’ve lived with this for twelve years and it’s still hard. I don’t think I’ve ever been this open about being raped. It was something that I made the decision to leave out in my full story. When I attempted to kill myself, the first time. It was all I could think about. The second time, I thought about the abuse. The third, I don’t even know what I was thinking; I just wanted it to be over. I didn’t want to have to think anymore.”

Kim shed a small tear onto the pillow. “Was there only three times?”

Trini shook her head. “No. No. I stopped counting. Even if I stopped counting, I know the number. I don’t have to count the scars to know the number. Fourteen. There were thirteen; about a year ago I relapsed. I went to New York to visit my cousin Dick, we call him Robin. Robin said it would be fun if I went to go take a tour around the school. I did. There was this tour guide, Raoul. I was the only person on the tour, he took us to this secluded alley and pushed me up against the brick. By the time Robin found me I was unconscious. Raoul is in prison, right next to Ty. Bruce and Robin made sure of it.”

Kim made an observation. “You say their names.”

Trini let out a very weak laugh. “I can’t just say ‘the guys who raped me’ there’s more than one. I know their names, so I say them. Nathanial, Griffen, Ara, Corrado, Felix, Raoul. Look, I don’t want to remember them, but I do. They play on repeat in my head sometimes. It’s what led to number fourteen. The fact that they get to rot behind bars and the ones who aren’t, probably have a failed marriage and are drinking their lives away. It never becomes easy. I’ve never even had sex. It’s only been guys who’ve raped me. It’s not like I ever had a long enough relationship either.”

Kim could understand that clearly. She hasn’t had sex since Ty. “You’re not missing out on much.”

Trini laughed. “Thanks, princesa.”

Kim smiled. “I’ve been upgraded to princesa now, huh?”

Trini matched Kim’s smile. “ _ It’s the Spanish, it comes out at night. _ ”

Kim shook her head. “I have no idea what you said, but it sounded hot.”

Trini smiled, “Thanks. Do you need to call your parents or anything? Diana might come early to the house tomorrow and wake us all up. Zack doesn’t work until Monday and I don’t really work hours, so we don’t have any alarms set.”

Kim shook her head in response. “They’ll call early when they know I’m not there. I’ll just fall right back asleep. I’ll wake up when Diana gets here then.”

Trini nodded and cuddled into the warm body in her bed on habit. The person in her bed was usually Zack. Trini scooched away from Kim when she noticed. “Come back here, you’re warm.”

“My heating system and blankets are perfect, you don’t need me.”

“Come closer, baby. I want to cuddle.” Trini’s heart totally didn’t pound in her chest when Kim called her baby. She cuddled into Kim and drifted into her sleep feeling lighter and free after sharing parts of her past with Kim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if I missed something or if you have questions. 
> 
> It was raining when I wrote this and I felt the irony.
> 
> Do you like the style?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In my outline, I just wrote:   
> Begin relationship here ---
> 
> I feel like that sums it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Make sure that you've read the tags 
> 
> !!!

Kimberly woke up to the sound of her phone ringing, her arm was somehow comfortably placed under Trini’s shirt touching her abs as the other one held around Trini’s waist. Kim moved her arms carefully off of Trini, trying not to wake the beast. When Kim was detached from Trini she sat up against the couch and picked up the call with a groggy “Hello?”

“Kimberly Ann Hart! Where are you? Why aren’t you at home.” The parents.  _ Maybe I should’ve called them last night. _

“I’m at a friend’s place. It’s the most comfortable pullout couch I’ve ever slept on.” Kim smiled, Trini was her friend and the pullout was more comfortable than the bed in her apartment.

“A pullout couch! What friend?”  _ That was harsh. _ Kim didn’t have a lot of friends. Mostly just Jason and they didn’t see each other very often, but he was always there to help her out with anything. 

“Yes, a pullout couch. I don’t see the issue there. I made two new friends yesterday. They offered to let me stay at their house so I wouldn’t have to drive in the rain.”

“Oh. Sorry, Kim. Where are you?” Kimberly’s parents may trust their daughter but they still wanted to know where she was.

“I’m in Angel Grove.” 

“Okay, be home for dinner. Your cousin, Drake is coming over.”

“Drake? I’ll definitely be home for dinner. I haven’t seen him for months.”

Kim’s parents laughed, “Alright Kim, see you later.”

“Bye.” Kim hung up and returned her head to the pillow just in time for Trini to shuffle in her sleep and pull Kim closer.  _ Welp, this is my life now. _ Kim didn’t care, Trini’s embrace was filled with real emotion and trust; in fact, Kim enjoyed it and drifted off to sleep easily.

“Little ones, I’m home. Pancakes for breakfast.” Diana paused when she saw who was on the pullout couch. “Trini. What is Kimberly Hart doing on our pullout couch?” 

Trini didn’t move from where she and Kim were snuggled together, “She bought me ice cream-”

Diana understood immediately. “And now she’s your friend forever?”

“Ding, ding. One-hundred points to mom.” Trini laughed at her own joke.

“I’m going to go wake up Zack, then I’m coming back, make your choices. Wake up now or get woken up by Zack and I.” 

Trini shot out of bed. “Wake up now. I’ll go get us a change of clothes when Zack comes out.” Trini turned to Kim who was almost back asleep. “C’mon, princesa. Being woken up by Zack is the worst.” When Kim didn’t wake up she took Kim’s hand in her lap and started drawing patterns. “Now that we’re friends forever, you get to have breakfast with Diana, Zack, and I and Diana will make whatever pancakes you want; chocolate chip, blueberry, plain if you really want that, sprinkles. If you don’t wake up. I can’t promise anything.”

Kim shifted, “I want pancakes.”

“I know you do, so you have to wake up.”

Kim moved to lean against Trini’s shoulder, not moving her hand. “Fine. These pancakes better be good.”

Trini smiled, “They will be.”

Kim laughed. “I really am your friend forever now, huh?”

Trini joined in on the laughter. “Oh, yeah. Ice cream is the way to my heart. You kind of know a lot about me and you understand me, so you’re staying. Mostly the ice cream.”

Kim feigned offense “I see how it is. You’re using me for ice cream.”

“From the very beginning.”

Diana came back out with a tired Zack to see Kimberly Hart and one of her kids interacting. What a sight to see? “Little one, go get some clothes for you and Kim.”

That was when Kim took in her outfit for the first time. A Star Wars shirt and sleep shorts. “You’ve made me into a nerd!” Trini smiled at Kim from over her shoulder and laughed.

Zack laughed and Diana just hummed and went to the kitchen. “Upstairs or Basement?” Diana had all the stuff she needed for pancakes down here, but she still wanted to ask. 

Zack looked around, “Might as well stay here.”

Trini came back wearing a low-cut shirt of some band and black cuffed sweatpants. Kim almost drooled. “Here are some clothes for you.” It looked like an old soccer jersey and some sweatpants that matched Trini’s but longer.

Kim grabbed the clothes. “Thanks.” When Kim got to the bathroom she noticed that the back of the jersey said 'Prince'. It wasn’t a soccer jersey, it was one of Trini’s gaming jerseys. It was still long on Kim, so she tucked in the shirt. Kim looked in the mirror, she looked hot. 

“Damn, Kim. You look hot.” Both Diana and Trini smacked the back of Zack’s head. “Oh, shit. Sorry, Kim.”

Kim shook her head. “It’s fine. I do look hot.” Kim and Zack high-fived and Trini pouted. Kim held up her hand for Trini to high-five her. Trini accepted immediately with a smile. “This is a nice shirt, what’s it from?”

Trini and Zack laughed, “It’s from when we tried to play Overwatch. We got Billy, Zack, myself, Diana, Barry, and Robin all on one team. It was a mess. We made jerseys for charity, we raised a lot of money. Zack and I have them in every size, I wear them a lot.” 

Diana laughed from the kitchen, “I think she stole all of my jerseys.”

“Were all the jerseys the same save for number?” Trini made an ‘eh’ hand motion. Zack went to go help Diana in the kitchen, he was not needed for that conversation. It was all Trini’s idea to do the shirts. 

“Kind of, the shirts were my idea, so I was in charge of making them with Robin. We had three types of shirts. One would be fully customizable, so the name, number. One was the ‘Prince shirt’ that you’re wearing, it was the set name and numbers of our team. The last one was a plain t-shirt that just had the team name on it. We made hoodies too. We have extras in the storage room upstairs if you wanted to take one home with you.” 

“That’s awesome, T. You really did all that? I’d love to take a hoodie.”

Trini nodded and smiled, “Yeah, I had a lot of help from Greyson, but I did it.”

Kim looked confused. “Greyson?”

Trini nodded. “Dick, Robin, Greyson. They’re all the same person. He’s very nicknamable.”

Diana called from the kitchen, “Pancakes!” Trini just made a bunch of gestures to the kitchen and Kim just laughed and went to the kitchen. “I made chocolate chip pancakes for you, Kim. Is that okay?”

Kim’s eyes sparkled, “I love chocolate chip.” Trini and Zack were too busy shoveling pancakes into their mouths to tease Kimberly. “You know I was going to stay in Reefside for the whole week and then go back to my apartment after the stream, but if I can get pancakes like this; I might be sticking around.”

Diana laughed and shook her head. “I’d feed anyone who shows up at our door.” Diana would, she even bought dog treats for if there was ever a dog that showed up in their yard. 

Kim only nodded eagerly and joined Trini and Zack in shoveling pancakes in their mouths. Diana was glad that Kimberly got along well with Trini and Zack. Kimberly might not claim it, but she was still healing. Zack and Trini knew a lot about healing. They still were, even after seven years.

“What are the plans for the day, little ones?”

Trini stopped shoveling pancakes in her mouth. “I was just going to do nothing. Hang out and around really.”

Kim finished her pancakes, “I have to be home for dinner, my cousin Derek is coming over. I can lounge around all day.”

Zack looked around, “I have a date. He should be here soon. I’ll be back for dinner.”

“Have fun with Jason, bro.”

“You got it, bro.” Zack made no motion to leave. The doorbell sound could be heard in the basement, so he would come up when it was time. Trini would too. She had to be a good sibling and threaten him a little. 

“Jason?”

Trini nodded at Kim’s question. “Yup. Zacky here’s got a boyfriend.”

“Would this Jason happen to be Jason Scott?”

Trini nodded again, “You know him?”

Kim’s eyes lit up at the confirmation, “Yeah, we grew up together. He’s my best friend.” 

Trini pouted a little when Kim said that Jason was her best friend, but then remembered that of course, they weren’t best friends they met yesterday. “Want to come up with Zack and I. Diana is not allowed near the boyfriend, yet.” Diana pouted but nodded in understanding. She could be very… protective.

“I’d love to, it’s been a while since I’ve last seen him.”

“I don’t want to cheat and teach you how to play video games before the stream. Everything is all muddy so we can’t take you out to play soccer. You could watch me play video games, but that might be boring.” Trini continued to list things they could do.

“I can watch you play video games. I’ve never seen you play. I’m wearing the jersey of someone who might not even be any good.” Kim smirked, knowing she had Trini trapped.

Diana cut in, “Hey I will have you know we were an okay team.”

“Mom; Zack, Billy, Grey, and I were a good team. We needed players. You and Barry at least knew the controls. We did make it pretty far. We got second place overall. We raised over ten thousand dollars from both donations and from the clothes.” Trini sighed. She loved her family. “More pancakes?”

Diana smiled and dished Trini more pancakes. “Alright, but these are the last ones.”

Trini grumbled out a “Fine.” but ate the pancakes just as quickly as before.

The doorbell rang and Trini and Kim shot up faster than Zack did. Trini got to the door first, she was the most athletic of them all, no matter how much Zack did parkour or Kim danced. Trini had them beat. “Hello? Come on in.”

“Hi. I’m here for Zack.” Jason stepped inside as Kim caught up; Zack was right behind her.

“How are you not out of breath.”

Trini laughed. “Says the dancer, who dances and sings at the same time.”

“Kim?” Kim looked up at Jason and jumped into his arms. “Hey, Kimmy. What are you doing over here?”

Trini smiled, “She bought me ice cream and now she’s never going to leave.”

“You bought her ice cream and now you’re at her house, wearing her clothes?” Jason gave a knowing smirk to Kim. Trini was so her type.

“Not like that, Jason. People can have friends you know.”

Zack finally recovered from running up the stairs. “Jace!”

“Zacky!” Jason brought Zack in for a hug and kissed his cheek. “Ew, sweaty.”

Zack laughed. “Let’s go before these two threaten you.” 

Trini rolled her eyes. “Have him home for dinner, pretty boy.” 

“Pretty boy, huh?” Jason wiggled his eyebrows.

“Ew, not like that. I don’t swing anywhere close to that way.” 

Jason laughed. “You may be hot, but your brother-”

Trini shoved them both out the door, “Nope. I don’t want to hear it. Out. Be home for dinner.” Trini shut the door behind them and fell against it.

“What up?” Kim scooched over so she was sitting back against the door, next to Trini.

“Exhausted. I’m going to get a drink.”

Kim let out a small laugh. “Trin, you just woke up, now is not the time for shots.”

Trini shook her head. “I meant water. We don’t have any alcohol here.”

Kim let out an exhale, “Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t really like having it around. It’s addictive, a depressant, and is involved in a lot of cases of abuse. I don’t need that around. Why’d you relax at that?”

“Ty drank. A lot. I haven’t been in the whole party scene in the last year. It’s hard. I don’t like it much anyway.”

Trini hummed, “Water.”

“Yeah.”

Trini got them both glasses of water. “Diana will probably stay downstairs for a while. Watch the news or call Bruce or something. You want to watch me play, what should I play?”

“Why not Overwatch.” Kim looked down at her tucked-in shirt. “Can I have the hoodie?”

“I rage at that game, so be prepared. Here, follow me.” Trini led them upstairs. “Welcome to the storage room. It was a guest room, but seen as I finished the basement we needed a place to store all our shit.” Trini pulled out a box with some weird labeling system on it. “How many do you want, do you want one that says ‘Prince’ on the back.” Trini wiggled her eyebrows.

“I can have more than one?”

Trini smiled, “Yeah, princess. This is box one of three. I have six of these things, all of which I wear regularly. I hate laundry, I just grab a new hoodie until Diana makes me do laundry.”

Kim smiled back. “I’ll take two. I want one that’s my size and one that’s a bit bigger.” Trini handed her two hoodies. “These are high quality. How much did you sell these for?”

Trini shook her head. “I’m not going to tell you. You’re going to try to pay me.” 

Kim hung her head, Trini was right. “Are these ones that have your last name on the back.”

Trini bit her lip. “Yeah. I can grab the blank ones if-”

“These are perfect. Let’s have you play video games.” Kim pulled Trini back downstairs. “Which room is it?”

“It’s less of a room. That one.” The room didn’t have a door, just a heavy curtain, most likely for sound. Trini opened the curtain and left it open. It really wasn’t a room, it was just a block of gaming stuff in a corner and a curtain around it to keep sound in. 

“Woah.” Kim looked around. “You have so much stuff.”

Trini laughed. “Only here. It’s mostly for show and a little of my inner nerd. I got most of it because I didn’t like just having a blank area behind me.” 

Kim nodded but was still in awe. “Overwatch?” Trini pulled out a pc that was glowing. “Did you make that?”

Trini nodded. “With a lot of help from Billy, Zack, and Barry. Even some help from Greyson. It’s one of the best pcs in the world. Even stole some tech from Bruce to make it.”

“Wait- have you been talking about Bruce Wanye this whole time?”

“Bruce Prince, but yes. He chose to publicly use grandma’s maiden name. For privacy.” Trini boots up the game.

“Understandable. I knew more about what I was doing when I was younger, I would’ve chosen an alias.”

“Fans find out everything. You would still be Kimberly Hart, your music would just be under a different name.”

“That’s true,”

Trini pulled out a pc controller. “I hate gaming on a computer, with a keyboard at least. It cramps my fingers. Barry made the controller work perfectly and modeled it so my hands never cramp.”

“Impressive. I’m starting to like your family.” 

Trini hummed, “They’re the good ones. They really are.” Trini’s phone started to ring. “Hold on.” Trini set down the controller and walked to the kitchen.

“Hey, Ives, what’s up?”

“Hey, Kid. Is Diana at your place?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Just need to talk to her about something.”

“The doors unlocked, she’s downstairs. Make sure you take off your shoes.”

“I always do, Kid.”

Trini hung up the phone and turned back to Kim. “Speaking of family Ivy’s coming over.”

Kim nodded. She had no idea who she was, but if it’s Trini’s family they’re good. “Games?”

-

The door shot open right as Trini finished the third round. “Trini!”

Trini ran over to where Ivy was. “Hey, Ives. What do you need?”

“Water.” Trini went over to get her honorary aunt a glass of water and Kim walked out of Trini’s gaming corner. “Kid, did you finally get a girl?”

Trini looked around the room before landing on Kim. “No, this is Kimberly Hart. She bought me ice cream-”

“And now you’re friends forever, got it. I know how you work, Kid.”

“Why do all of you just know this information?”

“It’s Trini knowledge. You get her ice cream, you’re stuck with her forever.” Both Ivy and Trini shrugged.

“Even Jason knew and he has never met me.”

“Anyway. I’m Kimberly Hart, Trini’s going to teach me how to play video games on stream and when she called me it ended in a crying fest, me buying ice cream, and ending up here.”

Ivy took Kim’s outstretched hand and shook it, “Doctor Pamala Isley, most just call me Ivy or Ives. I’m this one’s honorary aunt. I’m Diana’s best friend.” Ivy ruffled Trini’s hair. “I’d love to stay, Kid, but I really need to talk to Diana.”

Trini pointed at the basement door, “If you act good, you might get pancakes.” Ivy ran through the door. Trini shook her head, “That woman never changes. Always in a crisis and a half.”

-

Kim decided to stay around for lunch. Diana and Ivy left mysteriously with a “We’re leaving. I’ll be back sometime, little one.” Trini just shrugged it off.

“Arg. This is why we stopped doing the league games. This game aggravates me so much.” Trini looked at the time then back at an amused Kim. “What?”

“You’re cute.”

“I’m a badass!” Trini took a calming breath. “What do you want for lunch?”

“Pizza?”

“I think we have some frozen pizza in the freezer. Any dietary things?”

Kim shook her head. “Nope.”

Trini left her chair and signaled for Kim to follow her. “Did you enjoy watching me rage for two hours?”

Kim nodded, “Surprisingly, yes. It was somehow calming. I can see how people pay for that.”

Trini laughed. “I’ll never get used to that. I had an Undertale series for a while. I played in the hardest mode. I didn’t even make it to Sans. I played for three weeks. I gained such a following in those three weeks. Zack was on his worst behavior asking questions that would cause me to think all at the worst times.”

Kim pointed out, “You had fun.”

Trini smiled, “So much. I still have the save data. I could always go back. I played it on hard mode before and made it, so it’s not a confidence thing at all. I can do it. I know I can. Just when Zack gets in his groove of asking questions, I have to think more and faster. I like the challenge.”

Kim could completely understand. You have to push yourself to be better. Kim didn’t know how to continue the conversation, “How are you so fit?” Trini burst out laughing, she was not expecting that. “No I mean it, you play video games religiously, how do you do it.”

Trini stopped laughing to put the pizza in the oven and set the timer. “I work out; gym membership. I played soccer in a community league for a year. I recently quit because I didn’t like how one of the new players was looking at me. Better safe than sorry. I like to stay fit and I enjoy doing it. I can’t just sit down and play video games all day, I need to do stuff, be active.”

“You play soccer?”

Trini hummed, “I’m very good at it too. It was Zack and I’s choice sport. You can pick up a lot of people playing soccer shirtless in a park.” Trini laughed at the memory. “I think at least three of the girls were drooling at both of us.”

Kim made an agreeing sound. She would love to see Trini playing soccer shirtless, in a friendly way, of course. 

“I can feel you staring at my abs, princesa.” Kim’s eyes shot up to meet Trini’s. “Need anything, water? You seem thirsty.”

Kim made a face of feigned offense before it changed into a smile. “I can’t even be mad at that, that was a great transition.”

Trini took a bow, “Thank you, thank you.”

-

**Monday**

“Little one I’m back.” Diana came back to the house, Ivy was nowhere in sight.

“Hey, mom. Have fun with Ivy?”

Diana nodded. “What’s for lunch?”

“Sandwiches.”

-

**Trini:** _How was dinner with Derek?_

 **Kim:** _Awesome, he and his wife are always a treat._

 **Trini:** _Glad it went well, how are you liking the hoodies?_

**Kim:** _ These are the best hoodies I’ve ever had. _

**Kim:** [image]

**Kim:** _I should post this after our stream_

**Trini:** _ You should, you look great, princesa. _

-

**Wednesday**

**Trini:** _ I told Diana everything. _

**Trini:** _ About Nathanial and them. _

**Kim:** _ I’m proud of you. _

**Trini:** _ Thank you, Kim. _

-

**Friday**

**Kim:** _ I can’t believe the stream is tomorrow. I’ll be over for lunch. _

**Trini:** _ Was already planning on it, Kimmy.  _

**Kim:** _ Glad you were :). _

-

**Saturday**

**Kim:** _ Leaving now, be over in fifteen! _

**Trini:** _ Can’t wait! _

-

“Kimmy!” Trini jumped at Kim and latched onto her like a koala. At first, Kim was startled, then she relaxed into the touch. Trini detached herself from Kim after a while. “You’re wearing the hoodie?”

Kim nodded, “Yeah, I thought it would be a good idea.”

Trini smiled, “I like it.” Trini thought for a second. “Oh, shit. I hugged you. Do you like to be hugged? Was that okay?”

“Trin, that was okay.” Kim smiled. “You're a good hugger.”

Trini gestured for Kim to come inside. “I like hugs. I’m very tactile.” Trini hummed, “That’s probably why we ended up cuddled together on the couch.” Trini turned to Zack who was lounging on Trini’s chair. “Did you bring up the other pc and monitor?” Zack gave a thumbs up in response. “Everything’s all set, lunch’s in the oven, you have the list of games, and Diana and Jason coming over for dinner.”

Kim pulled out her phone, “Yeah, Zordon gave me the list. Call of Duty and Fifa were the top two. Undertale and Overwatch were on the top list too.”

Trini was already planning in her head. “Okay. We can start with the basics. We’re going to use controllers on the pcs unless you want to use the keyboard.”

“I’d probably be better with the controller.”

Trini nodded and pulled the food out of the oven. “Zack! Dinner!”

Kim told Zack stories about Jason and Zack in turn embarrassed Trini and Trini tried to restrain herself from yelling at Zack. He was just being brotherly.

When it was around one they decided to start the stream. “Zordon sent out the tweet, we’re good to go.” Trini sent out her own tweet, Zack just retweeted both of them.

Zack gave Trini the thumbs up and Trini gave one back. The stream started. Trini and Kim’s screens were both up on the start screen and their faces were both visible in the camera.

“Hello, as we wait for people to file in. I’m here with Kimberly Hart. Who’s only video game experience is playing Mario Kart.” Trini sent a sly smile to Kim, she feigned offense, “I took it upon myself to teach her how to play games of your suggestion.”

“The first game we’re going to play is Call of Duty. We both have pc controllers. Send us questions in the chat; Zack is here to read them out to us.” Trini looked at Zack with a smile.

“How do I start the game?”

“Hit ‘a’ a few times.” Kim did and she came to the loading screen. “The game should start in a few seconds. While we wait. Questions?”

“Question for Kim. Kim, do you have any plans for a new album?”

“I do have plans for a new album, but I don’t have a release date and I haven’t started recording it, yet.” The game started and Kim freaked out as she didn’t know what she was doing.

Trini calmly explained the controls as Kim listened. As Kim started to wander around, Trini explained more about the game. Kim was surprised by the calmness that she was radiating.

They answered more questions, Kim got asked about stuff like tour dates, songs, upcoming collaborations. Trini got asked questions about new video games, best pc tech, and her merch shop. Kim used the opportunity when Trini was asked about her merch shop to show the hoodie that she was wearing. 

When Kim took her eyes off the screen her player died. “Trini!”

Trini laughed evilly. “I think you’ve got the hang of this, do you want to switch to Fifa?” Kim nodded. “Switching games. You all know what that means. Zack’s going to lead you all in some stretching. Kim and I are going to get some water for all three of us.”

Kim followed Trini to the kitchen. “How do you do all that? It’s so hard to focus on the game and talking.”

“I’ve been doing this for three years. You get used to it. I was telling Diana a while ago, it’s muscle memory. A lot of games have the same mechanics and controls. I’m usually able to talk and play at the same time.” 

Kim nodded, impressed. “You do that for four hours at a time?”

“Yup. Now come on. We can’t let Zack stretch alone.” Trini and Kim headed back in the gaming corner to stretch with Zack. “Alright, so we switched the games to Fifa. I play against you.” Trini laughed evilly.

Kim smiled at the display, “You’re going to crush me aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah. I’ll teach you the controls first. I’m not completely evil.” Trini brought up the controller diagram and explained each of the controls and taught Kim some combo attacks. “Got it?”

“I think so. I’ll figure it out.”

Trini smiled, “That’s what I like to hear.”

Kim drank some of her water before pressing play. “Aaah.” The second the game started Kim forgot how to play. They had to play three games before Kim scored once. It took five more games for Kim to win. Kim did a victory dance and Trini only pouted. “Please, you won seven games. Let me have this?”

Trini just shook her head and koala hugged Kim. “Fine.” Trini looked at the time. “We have time for one more game. What do you think we should play?”

Kim thought for a second and drank some water, “How about a game of overwatch?”

Zack immediately shook his head no, vigorously. “How about something calming, maybe one player?” Zack did not need a raging Trini to take care of. Overwatch was just that game for Trini. 

“Maybe you could teach me how to finally play Mario Kart?”

Trini shrugged and nodded. Zack went over to pause the stream and plugged in the Switch. Zack handed them both a controller and set up the stream okay. “We are back!” Zack went through stretches again as Kim and Trini drank water and joined in.

Trini brought up the controller diagram for Kim to look at and explained both strategies and the controls. It only took four games for Kim to come in first and beat Trini. Trini wasn’t very good at Mario Kart anyway. They were overtime and Trini ended the stream. “Bye, guys!”

“That was super fun. I can’t believe that I beat you at your own games.”

“That you did.”

Zack looked up from the computer and spoke, “Do you want me to take photos for your Instagram?” Kim nodded and handed over her phone.

Zack took a plethora of photos of the pair. When handed the phone back to Kim, it started to ring. “Zordon’s calling.” Kim stepped away to answer the phone.

“Kimberly! Great job on the stream!"

"Thank you, Zordon, it was really fun. We're thinking we should do it again."

"That is exactly what I wanted to talk about. Can I talk with you and Trini privately?"

"Yeah. Give me a second." Kim gestured for Trini to come over. 

"What's up, Kimmy?"

"Zordon wants to talk to us both, privately."

Trini's eyes widened a little. "Yeah, sure. Basement?"

Kim nodded and brought them both to the basement. "You're on speaker, Zordon."

"Thank you. So the stream went over very well. Super great. One thing, the fans seem to think that you're dating."

Kim glanced at Trini before responding, "What does that have to do with anything. Fans think I'm dating anyone who I cross paths with."

"It made sales go up, I had Alpha double-check but donations and purchases for Trini went up as well."

Trini looked at Kim. "What are you saying?"

Zordon sighed, "Alpha and I think it would be mutually beneficial if you two-" Zordon took a pause. "Pretended to date."

"And lie to my fans? No way." Trini crossed her arms and looked at the phone, glaring. 

"Like I said it would be mutually beneficial. Donations went up one-hundred-fifty percent on your website and one-hundred-twenty on your merch shop. It wouldn't only be good for you, but it would be good for your organization."

Trini pinched the bridge of her nose. "Kim, how do you feel about this?" 

"If it's with you, I wouldn't mind." Kim smiled at Trini. 

"We'd have to like kiss and stuff, convince everyone. That includes Zack, Diana, Jason. You'd have to take me on dates."

"I really don't mind, Trini. Look, the media has only been focusing on my relationship with Ty and that's hard to be asked about. I came out as bisexual before my relationship with Ty, so there would be no questions or doubt about the relationship." Kim paused. "We're friends already, I don't see the issue of spoiling you a little." Kim muted the call, so Zordon wouldn't hear what she was about to say. "We can even come up with terms so that you're not bothered by the femininity of them."

Trini's eyes sparkled, no one had even taken her situation into account this much when making decisions. "Fine, but these better be the best damn dates ever."

"Oh, they will be." Kim unmuted the call. "We're in."

"Great! Now, how you're going to announce it…"

-

**Monday**

They had talked over the whole plan with Zordon. Kim would take Trini on a date the next day and they would take a photo of them kissing at the end of the night. 

Now, Trini just had to tell Zack and Diana. "So, Kim asked me out on a date and I said yes."

"Are you okay with that, little one? I know your last relationship-"

"I trust Kim. I'll tell you guys if anything of the sort were to happen. She's swinging by the house in an hour and you two can intimidate her all you want. Although, I would prefer that you didn't."

Zack looked Trini in the eye, "I'm here for you, T. I love you." Zack went to head up the stairs. "I'll be back down to intimidate Kimberly."

Diana had a worried glint in her eye. "Are you sure about this Trini?"

Diana was pulling out the big guns on this. Trini. "I'm sure." Diana pulled Trini into a hug and kissed her forehead. 

"I'm going to take a nap. I'll be back down for Kimberly."

"Okay." Trini just sat on the kitchen counter. She hated lying, but it was for a good cause. 

**Trini:** _ I told them. _

**Kim:** _ About our date? _

**Trini:** _ Yeah  _

**Kim:** _ I told my parents too. They want to meet you.  _

**Trini:** _ I'm free tomorrow? _

**Kim:** _ I'll ask.  _

**Kim:** _ They said yes.  _

**Kim:** _ Should I wear your jersey? _

**Trini:** _ That's where that went? Did you take it home with you?  _

**Kim:** _ It's comfy. Can't blame a girl.  _

**Kim:** _ Speaking of, have you thought of a title, or are you good with 'girlfriend'? _

**Trini:** _ I'm not sure, no one's ever given me the option.  _

**Kim:** _ Let me know if you think of something. I'm here.  _

**Trini:** _ I know. _

**Trini:** _ Wear the jersey. I can give you another one too. I have my league soccer jersey? _

**Kim:** _ Gimme.  _

**Kim:** _ Please? _

**Trini:** _ It'll be here when you get here.  _

**Kim:** _ Awesome. _

Trini went to go grab her soccer jersey. It would fit Kim snugly. 

**Kim:** _ I have an old cheerleading hoodie with 'Hart' written on the back. You don't have to, but… _

**Trini:** _ Bring it. It'll be cute. Fair warning, I will be keeping it forever and stealing more :) _

**Kim:** _ I had no doubts.  _

**Trini:** _ Thanks for being so understanding about the whole feminine thing.  _

**Kim:** _ You don't need to thank me for accepting who you are, Trin.  _

**Trini:** _ You're great and until I think of something, you can use 'girlfriend'.  _

**Kim:** _ Okay. ;) _

**Trini:** _ ;) _

Trini went to go get dressed, she put on a pair of ripped jeans and a yellow t-shirt and did a half tuck. "Damn, T. You look hot. This all for Kimmy?"

Trini shrugged. It was for her too, she liked to dress up nice sometimes.

"Kim will love it, T."

"Thanks, Zack."

The doorbell rang and all three Prince's ran to the door. Trini once again was the first one and opened the door. "Kimmy!" Just like last time, Trini jumped and attached herself like a koala to Kim. Kim was ready for it this time and was able to embrace back quicker. 

"I, uh, brought flowers." Kim handed over a bouquet of flowers. "I picked them from my mom's garden."

"I don't know if we have a vase, but I bet Diana can do something with them, they're beautiful." Trini handed the flowers to Diana. 

Zack stepped forward and puffed out his chest to look intimidating. "If you hurt her, I don't know what I'll do, but it will be something and you're not going to like it."

Kim nodded in understanding. Diana came back, "Same goes for me. You hurt Trini, you're not going to like it." Kim gulped, she did not want to have to deal with a protective Diana Prince. 

"Here's the jersey." Trini pointed to the bathroom. Kim slipped off her shoes and went to go change. 

"You're giving her your old soccer jersey?"

Trini shrugged, "She wanted it."

Kim came back and Trini's brain short-circuited, Kim looked really hot in her clothes. Her jersey. Trini gulped, "Ready to go?" 

"Yeah." Kim stretched out her hand and Trini took it. Walking to Kim's car, Kim spoke again. "If at any point you don't want to do this. We can turn back around and pretend it never happened."

Trini nodded. Kim spoke again, "I don't want to do anything to make you uncomfortable. We're going to go to a restaurant in Reefside. I made reservations and everything."

"Understood. The same goes for you." Kim nodded and let go of Trini's hand to open her door. "You look really hot in my jersey by the way."

Kim hummed in appreciation, "I have the hoodie. Here." Kim reached in the back seat and Trini felt the hoodie. It felt nice. 

"This feels nice." Kim let out a chuckle and nodded. "Can I wear it?"

Kim smiled, "Of course. That's why I brought it." Trini looked at it. It said 'Hart' on the back along with 'Reefside Sharks' on the front. Trini put on the hoodie. 

"Did you go to college?"

"I tried to do online courses, but I've never had the focus to do classwork. I get distracted easily and I can never quite pay attention. I didn't even get a degree, but I did get all the clothing if that's what you're trying to ask?"

Trini hummed, "It is, princess. I don't know how Billy would feel about me wearing his rival school's clothing and enjoying it." 

Kim feigned offense. "And I went to the school and here I am wearing the Angel Grove community soccer jersey."

"You're right." Trini brought them back to the focus, "I technically have a degree from UCLA. I got clothes and stuff from them, but I never really wear them because I never really went. I have a general degree and I don't need it. I play video games for a living."

Kim laughed, "UCLA, huh? I just attended Angel Grove County College. Those have Tigers on them, would you like those better. I even got ones that say 'Hart' on the back."

"UCLA was the only school that would recognize Zack and I's homeschool credits. I would love more of your clothes, they smell nice. Just like you."

"Alright, suck up." Kim let out a chuckle, "Let's eat some food." Kim walked around the car to open the door for Trini. 

"How chivalrous."

"Hey. If I'm doing this, I'm doing it right." Kim gave Trini her best silly face and Trini laughed. "Reservation under Hart?"

The server looked up, "Right this way please." The server led them to a booth. Trini wasn't sure where to sit, she decided to sit across from Kim. The server asked them for their drink orders and left. 

"Take all the girls here?"

"Nah, just the cute ones." Trini blushed. The restaurant was fairly empty, so there wasn't much need to pretend. "What are you thinking of ordering?"

"I was thinking about the chicken tenders."

Kim looked at Trini and raised a brow, "From the kid's menu." 

Trini tried to hide her blush and shrunk in her seat, nodding. 

"You're cute." Kim looked at Trini. "I know this is a bit of a weird situation, but I'm glad it's you and not some random guy."

"Guys are the worst." They both laughed, mostly to relieve tension; they had shared their trauma with one another; they both understood how cruel the world could be. 

"How do you feel about pet names? Babe, baby, sweetie?"

Trini looked into the distance for a second. "I'll let you know if I don't like something. You can try out anything really just-" Trini cringed. "Try not to use anything that has those feminine things like 'my girl' or 'babygirl' those are a no-no. General things are good, masculine is fine too."

Kim nodded and turned back to her menu, "I still don't know what I want to order."

Trini looked up at Kim from her menu, she had been staring at desserts. "How do you do that?"

Kim didn't look up from her menu, "Do what?"

"Put that into a normal conversation the way you do. You asked, made the change, and went back to what you were doing. How do you do that?"

Kim looked up from her menu and smiled, "It's just who you are. It's a normal thing to talk about yourself and your partner."

"Not in my experience. Tommy never did anything like that. I'm pretty sure she straight up ignored me for half our relationship." 

"Tommy?"

"My ex. I dated Tommy for a good three months. She wanted-" Trini made a gesture with her hands. "More. I didn't. Zack beat her up before she could even try." Trini smiled at the memory. Zack would always be there for her. 

"So you broke up?"

"Yup. Shunned her out of the house. She moved away a day later. She went to nowhere Wyoming or something. Zack and I threw a party. She hit me a few times, but nothing too bad. It was manipulation. She always apologized, crying and I had dealt with that all my life, I didn't really know anything else at the time."

Trini paused, "I suppose now that we're dating we should go over past relationships." Trini took a breath. "I dated two people. One of them being Tommy when I was nineteen and the other being Kira when I was twenty. Kira never tried to go farther with me, but she wanted to and was very, uh, handsy. Kira never hit me or anything like that, she just wanted to coerce me into sex. I don't have the best luck with relationships."

Kim took in that information and nodded, "For me it way Ty, this other guy Kane. Kane was the one who wanted me for my money and we all know how that went. In high school, I dated two throw-away guys. Football jocks. It was mostly the social pressure of being a cheerleader.

"Josh and Finwally. Weird name on the second, but he was nice and took me on nice dates. I would've stayed with him if he didn't move away. It wouldn't have lasted but we would've stayed together for another few months. We keep in touch and we're great friends. I was at his wedding. He and Josh got married."

Of all the twists, Trini was not expecting that. Trini laughed. The waiter almost didn't ask for their orders and would've walked away if Kim didn't have such a commanding aura. 

"Hello ladies, can I take your orders?" Trini cringed at the use of ladies but tried not to show it. 

Trini ordered first knowing exactly what she wanted. The waiter was about to tell Trini that the children's menu was for twelve and under, but Kim gave him a glare and that shut him up quickly, only nodding at the request. 

Kim ordered second ordering spaghetti. Something she knew she would like. The waiter took their menus and walked away. 

"I'm sorry about the whole 'ladies' thing."

"It's okay, he doesn't know." Trini looked at Kim's face and knew she needed to continue. "It's not like you look at me and see peak androgyny. I'm not telling people that part of me. Like I said before I don't mind the pronouns, so to get called 'lady' or 'girl' or even 'ma'am' sometimes. It hurts a little, but I'm used to it."

"You shouldn't have to be used to it, Trin. Is that what you prefer? Androgyny?"

"That's how I would describe it. I don't have the best relationship with labels seen as most of my labels would be 'victim' or 'survivor'. I feel guilty about the ladder. I didn't want to be a survivor for most of it. For eight years, I lived through hell. They want to call me a survivor. I was kept alive because someone wanted a punching bag."

Kim looked at Trini with that look. That look that Trini always wants to see when she tells someone these things. Understanding and intent listening. "I'm glad you're here."

"I can't always say the same, but right now. I'm really glad I'm here."

Kim smiled and tucked some hair behind her ear. "I became a pop star right out of high school. I got what I wanted in life and I didn't know how to act. It took almost a year and a lot of talks from Jason, but I spiraled somewhere dark. I came back up to float; all I've been doing is floating. Meeting you and Zack had been the first time I've been on real solid land."

Trini wasn't expecting Kimberly to say that. Trini's jaw went slack, she could feel it. 

Kim gave a shy smile. "Not expecting that were you, sorry."

Trini was quick to reassure her. "I'm not used to compliments that aren't on my gaming skills. To have someone enjoy my company and for it to help them. It's just new."

Kim nodded in thought, "When I was sixteen there was this fair that came to town. I went to it with my parents, we did all the fair things. I even won a stuffed animal."

Trini's eyes lit up, "A stuffed animal? Do you still have it?"

Kim nodded, "I do. It's in my room, do you want to see it when you come over for dinner tomorrow?"

Trini nodded eagerly. She loves stuffed animals. Her room, her actual room, has many cuddle friends. 

"We can do that." Kim paused, remembering. "Derek reminded me of this story when he was over. Back when we lived in England, Derek did too. My favorite mischief cousin. We would pull pranks on the adults. This one time, the summer before I came here, to Reefside, we pulled the ultimate prank."

Trini smirked, "Do tell, princess."

Kim smirked back, "We put sleeping pills into the dessert and claimed we were too full. While everyone was asleep we drew on their faces with markers."

Trini smiled, "Very sinister of you, princess."

Kim and Trini continued to talk about stories of their past and Trini talked about being in soccer with a "You should watch Zack and I play sometime." Kim talked about singing and the year that she tried to be on the football team “You should see Jason and I play.” They made plans to go to the park with the boys. 

When they finished their food Trini grabbed the bill before Kim could even blink. “I thought you wanted me to take you out on dates?”

Trini smirked, “Then I snatch the bill from right under your nose.”

“You planned this!”

Trini looked triumphant, “From the beginning.”

Kim feigned offense but let Trini pay. They left the restaurant and Kim held Trini’s hand. “I know that most of this is for show but I really had fun tonight.”

“Me too,”

“Alright, pengting. Let’s take this photo.”

Trini looked around then at Kim, “Pengting?”

Kim cleared her throat and spoke. “It’s British slang.”

Trini grew more confused, “For what?”

“It means you’re attractive and fit.”

Trini blushed, “I like it.”

Kim looked at Trini. “You do?”

Trini only nodded. She really liked the way the words sounded. It brought out a part of Kim’s British accent and Trini really liked to hear it. “It brings out your accent.”

Kim blushed and raised a brow at Trini, “You like my accent.”

Trini had a dopey smile on her face as she looked at Kim. “Yeah. Why don’t you use it more? It sounds natural for you.”

Kim spoke in her full accent, “Americanization, mostly. Helps people understand what I’m saying.”

Trini frowned, “I can understand you fine.”

Kim laughed. “You can, everyone should. Some words are better than others. Some people pretend they can’t to just be rude. It comes out much more around my family, when I watch British shows, or when I feel comfortable.”

Trini smiled dopily again, “You feel comfortable around me?”

Kim found a good place to take their photos. Kim spoke in her full accent, “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Trini just shook her head and pulled out her phone. “We’re going to kiss. Are you comfortable with that?”

Kim smiled, “Yeah. Consent?” Trini nodded and smiled back. Kim shook her head, “Verbal.”

“Yes, you have consent.” 

“Cool.” Kim took out her phone. “Ready? We’re going to take cute couple photos.”

“Yeah.” 

Trini and Kim took a bunch of cute photos. When it came time to kiss they sat on the fountain and Kim would be the one to take the photo. “You’re sure? I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this. We’re still at a point of return.”

Trini raised her brow challengingly “Kiss me, princess.” 

Kid did. Kim forgot to take the photo. When the kiss broke they both went in for another. Kim remembered to take the photos the second time. 

“Woah.”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, pengting. I have to get you home before Zack and Diana do something that I won’t like.”

Trini rolled her eyes, “The most they would ever do is maybe make your life inconvenient for a day.”

Kim smiled. “I know but I don’t like inconvenience.”

“What time should I be over for dinner tomorrow?”

Kim checked her phone and checked a text from her parents. “Around seven. Maybe come a little earlier.”

“Let me know if that changes, princess.”

Kim nodded and led them back to her car, still being chivalrous she opened the door for Trini. “I’m going to make the post with the announcement. You’re still okay with ‘girlfriend’?”

Trini nodded, “For now.”

Kim dropped Trini off at her house and gave her a quick peck after asking if she could. Trini gave her a koala hug and went inside to tell Diana and Zack about the date. 

When Trini had finally calmed down from her date, she reflected. It seemed real, but she knew it was fake. Trini didn’t like lying. It got complicated. This was complicated. Trini just sighed and went to her room instead of sleeping in the basement. She grabbed her favorite stuffed animal, an elephant named Yorge, and cuddled into her bed. 

Trini fell asleep with dreams of what if it was real. 

-

Trini woke up to a ringing sound. A phone call. “Hello?” Trini could only hear sobs on the other end of the call. Trini looked at the caller ID  **Princesa** . “Kim?” There was more crying, but no response. “Princess?”

Kim let out another choked sob. “I had a bad nightmare.” Kim felt like a kid having to call her parents when she thought there was a monster under the bed. Kim called Trini because Trini was the only one that could understand. Trini wouldn’t judge Kim for having a nightmare. That was what she needed. 

“I can be over in fifteen. What do you need?” Trini grabbed her key. She had Kim’s address because Kim had texted it to her along with a confirmation of the social media post and the time and address of the dinner with her parents. 

Kim was still crying, but it was softer now. “Talk to me?”

“Always.” Trini opened her car door, “When I first started to play soccer at the park, before I joined the league, Zack and I would show off. Make trick shots, play one-on-one, just play soccer. Zack and I were doing trick shots and he kicked the ball at my face. It hurt. I had a concussion, Diana was so worried. Diana made Zack take care of me for the two weeks or whatever it was that I had to be under strict watch. I had billy take over my streams with some help from Greyson. I couldn’t do anything.

“We played cards, I even read an engineering manual and learned more about cars and talked with Barry. Those were two terrible weeks, but I made the best out of what I could do. I learned. I now know seventeen card games, then some. I had fun, even if my face was jank.”

Kim had stopped crying only a few occasional tears streaming down her face. “What did you do to Zack when you got better?”

Trini laughed, “I beat him at soccer and a few video games. Diana handled most of it. He had to wait on me hand and foot for however long it was. I made good on that torture.” Trini arrived at Kim’s parent’s house and exited her car. “Should I come in through the door or get the teenage experience and come in through the window?”

Kim laughed, “I think you would get stuck in the tree. I’ll come down.” Kim opened their front door and Trini latched onto Kim in her standard koala hug. 

“What do you need?”

“You,” Kim set Trini down gently. “I want to cuddle. Come up?”

“Are you sure, your parents-“

“You’ll just be meeting them sooner. I’m an adult, they can’t get rid of you.” Kim held eye contact with Trini. “I’ll protect you.”

It wasn’t much, but that made Trini melt. “Yeah, yeah. Okay.” Trini followed Kim up to her room. She hadn’t taken in Kim’s appearance yet. She was wearing the hoodie that Trini gave her. One that said ‘Prince’ on the back. “I like the hoodie.”

Kim smiled, “Me too. Reminds me of you.” Kim pulled Trini over to the bed and a saber tooth tiger stuffed animal caught Trini’s attention. Trini immediately jumped at it hugging it. Trini dragged it over to the bed.

“What’s its name.”

“This is Pineapple.”

Trini chuckled. “Pineapple?”

Kim smiled happily. “Yeah.”

Trini smiled back, “I like it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Is this what you won at the carnival?” Kim nodded and fell back in her bed. “Do you want to talk about it? The nightmare, I mean.”

Kim shook her head. “Not now. It was mostly about Ty and I-“ Kim paused, “I don’t want to think about it.” Trini grabbed Kim to cuddle with. 

“You’re safe with me. I’ve got you. I’ll be here in the morning.” Trini cuddled into Kim and held her close. “Let’s get some sleep and we can talk in the morning if you want. I have to think of something for why I’m here and showed up in your room. You can think of how much you want to say.” Kim nodded and they fell asleep embraced together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might post later today


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trini wakes up in Kim's bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't as long as the one yesterday, but that was a treat 
> 
> !!!  
> Read the tags

**Tuesday**

"Kim, it's time to come down for breakfast!" Kim's mom entered Kim's room to find Kim with someone else in her bed and Pineapple, the stuffed saber tooth tiger, on the floor near the bed. "Kim!" 

Trini shook awake at the loud sound and shied away from it hopping over the side of the bed with an "oof". 

Kim slowly turned and turned to face her mom. "Hey, mom. What are you doing up here?"

"I made breakfast. Who's this in your bed?"

"Trini? Hm, oh, right. Mom, Trini. Trini, mom." Kimberly made gestures between the two as she sleepily introduced them. 

Trini popped up from behind the bed. "Hey, Mrs. Hart."

Mrs. Hart spoke up and raised an eyebrow at Trini. "And what are you doing here in my daughter's bed in the morning when you clearly were not here last night."

Trini took a glance at Kim, she didn't know how much she could say or even what she could say. "I'm the girlfriend." Trini winced at her own words. She didn't like the term, but it's all they had for now. 

Mrs. Hart knew that Trini was the girlfriend, she invited her over for dinner today. She just wanted to know what Trini was doing in Kim's bed.

Luckily for all of them, Kim spoke up. "I had a nightmare."

Mrs. Hart's demeanor softened. She knew that her daughter had bad nightmares, Kim never talked about them with her; she could guess what they were about. "Are you okay?"

That was something Trini never asked, Trini only ever asked 'What do you need?'. She didn't need to be okay, she needed to be taken care of. Trini had that glint in her eye. Mrs. Hart had said the wrong thing, but she didn't know any better; Trini could forgive. 

Kim couldn't lie to her mother but she didn't want to open up either. "I will be." Now that was the wrong thing to say Trini glared at Kim so that Mrs. Hart wouldn't see it but Kim would. She sent a look to Trini that conveyed 'later'. 

Mrs. Hart turned to Trini, "Where did you park? Did you drive here?" Trini nodded. 

"I parked out on the street. Right next to the driveway."

Mrs. Hart had seen that car, she didn't think anyone she would meet would have a car that nice. Her husband had been raving about it all morning. "That's a nice car. How'd you get it?"

"My uncle Barry and my uncle Bruce built it."

"They built that car?"

Trini laughed at Mrs. Hart's shocked and in awe expression. "With my uncle Bruce money's no object and uncle Barry is one of the most knowledgeable about cars in the country." Trini paused to let it sink in. She knows she has a nice car. "My brother Zack has almost the same car but more attuned to what he likes than what I do."

"Ted would love to hear about your car. Are you staying for breakfast?" Trini looks at Kim and Kim nods. Kim wants Trini here. 

"Yeah. I am. Give me a minute to change." Trini had driven to the house in her yellow muscle shirt and some old Bulbasaur pajamas. 

“See you both downstairs in ten.”

Kim stared wide-eyed at Trini, “How did you do that?”

Trini looked to Kim and Trini’s face contorted into confusion. “Do what?”

“You woke up in my bed and schmoozed a protective mother into liking you. How?”

Trini’s face stayed confused, “I did?”

Kim laughed. “You did.”

“I was just being myself.”

“I like it."

Trini smiled. “I need to change. I’m betting that all your clothes will fit me.” Both Kim and Trini laughed and Kim went to grab Trini a pair of clothes that wouldn’t look too baggy. Trini ended up dressed in a pair of rolled-up cheerleading sweats and a pink t-shirt that advertised one of Kimberly’s tours. Trini preferred her form-fitting clothes to the extreme bagginess of Kim’s clothes, but Kim, after Kim had rolled up the sweats and did a half-tuck with the shirt Trini, started to like it. A lot. Trini liked being engulfed in Kim’s scent, it was comforting.

“I’m going to change then we can head downstairs.” Trini nodded and turned around. Kim grabbed out a generic pair of black sweats and one of her cropped tops. When Kim gave the signal for Trini to turn around the first thing that she noticed was Kim’s abs. “I can feel you staring at my abs, pengting.”

Trini’s eyes shot up to meet Kim’s “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to just, ahhh, abs, you know?”

Kim smirked, “I do know. You should wear those muscle shirts more often.” 

“It’s all I wear, princess. You’ve just seen me in a lot more of my casual ‘we’re going to have guests over’ or ‘I’m streaming’ outfits. There’s a reason it’s most of my wardrobe. You may not believe it but you can sweat buckets playing video games.” Trini laughed, “Or playing soccer, which I know you want to see because it’s me shirtless in the park. You and Jason can drool over Zack and I.” 

Trini smirked and left the room to go downstairs and Kim had to recover quickly to catch up. Kim smiled and looked for a little nod before reaching out her hand for Trini to grab.

A man who Trini assumed to be Ted stepped forward when they reached the kitchen. “Ah, you must be the girlfriend. Trini is it?”

Trini once again winced at the word ‘girlfriend’, they really needed to come up with something better. Shaking off her discomfort, she held out her hand. “I’m Trini Prince.”

Ted reached out to shake Trini’s hand. “Ted Hart.” Ted looked out the window. “Nice car.”

Trini smiled, “Thanks.” 

“What’s for breaky?”

Ted smiled as Mrs. Hart came back in the kitchen, “Pancakes.”

Trini’s face lit up, food really was the way to her heart. Kim gave a light chuckle to Trini’s excitement. “With chocolate chips?” The question came from Kim.

“Always. Let’s get the table set up okay?”

Kim nodded and grabbed the stack of plates from the cupboard. What Kim failed to remember was that the dishwasher door was open. With the stack of plates in hand, Kim tripped over the dishwasher door and dropped one of the plates. Mrs. Hart just sighed and went to get a broom.

Kim, on the other hand, was freaking out. Dropping a plate, much more,  _ breaking  _ a plate. Ty would’ve hit her for that. Kim made herself small and rocked back and forth. Trini heard the sound of a plate breaking and ending the conversation about cars with Ted to make sure that the Hart women were okay. 

When Trini came into the kitchen she found Kim and knew immediately what was happening. Kim was having a panic attack. Trini went to Kim and went to sit next to her, knowing it would be bad to touch her considering the reason that this was probably happening. 

Trini decided to talk, “Hey, princess. It’s Trini. Trini Prince. Well, you know who I am. I’ve never told you this but my full name is Trinidad Alanis Prince. When I first got to the orphanage that’s all they knew about me. For the first month, I was treated like everyone else. I got to play ball, I got to learn how to play tag. This was before I took the assessments. My birth parents; while I don’t remember much about them or how they died; I know they were good people. 

“My dad always told me to help others. We brought welcoming gifts to new people in the area, we opened our doors on holidays to anyone without a home. One day my mother told me that I could be whoever or whatever I wanted to be, when I look back on that I think they knew I was smarter than my own grade. I like to think that they did, that they died proud of me. Then it was Saturday and no one was home. Three days later I was at the orphanage, beginning my new life, on track to Diana.”

Kim was now looking at Trini giving Trini her full attention, she was still in a panicked state, but Trini reached out to touch her and Kim gave a nod. Trini rubbed circles on Kim’s back as she continued with the story. “Skip ahead about eight years to meet Diana. Diana reminds me of who I remember my mother was, of the few things I do remember. Diana always opened her doors, not even just on holidays, but at any time. Even now I can still go to Diana’s house and she doesn’t have to be home and I can feel that love.”

Kim was calming down so Trini moved her hand down to Kim’s arm to draw patterns. “Barry and Bruce are too comedic to emulate the seriousness of my father but I don’t need for someone to replace my father or my mother. I have new people around. My parents are gone and the Prince’s aren’t going anywhere. They’re my family now. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Trini was smiling at Kim the whole time. Kim found it odd ‘smile at the girl having a panic attack’ but Trini was just happy and Kim calmed down. She was calming for many reasons; she started to focus on Trini, Trini was there, and nothing happened; she was safe. Her mother was sweeping up the plate after taking out the big chunks. Ted was staring at appreciation at Trini. Kim uncurled herself and snuggled into Trini. 

“What do you need?”

Kim smiled, it was almost a smirk. “Pancakes, Trinidad. I need pancakes.”

Trini groaned, “I never should’ve told you that.” Trini stood up and held out a hand to Kim. 

Kim looked down at Trini’s feet before taking Trini’s hand when she got up on her own two feet she processed what she saw. “Trini, you’re bleeding!” 

Trini winced at the shouting before she recovered and looked at her feet. While walking over to Kim she must’ve walked over the plate. “Oh, I am.” 

“How did you not know-” Kim looked at her mom, “Mom, Trini’s foot got scraped on the plate.” 

Mrs. Hart rolled her eyes before grabbing the first aid bucket. With the recklessness that Kim has they needed a lot of first aid and their first aid kit soon turned into a first aid bucket. Mrs. Hart was a trained nurse before she became a lawyer which made her the go-to in these situations. 

“Trini, you should be more careful.” Mrs. Hart made a motion for Trini to sit on the counter. Trini understood and did as she was told.

“Sorry, ma’am.” 

Mrs. Hart frowned as she grabbed tweezers. “None of that. Call me Maddy.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Trini realized her habit and rephrased it. “Maddy.”

Maddy nodded and went to pull the first piece of plate from Trini’s feet. “How did you know what to do? With Kim, I mean.” Maddy wanted to keep the girl talking but she also wanted to know. 

“My brother and I have panic attacks sometimes too. It got much better-” Maddy pulled out another piece and Trini bit on her lip. “After Diana put us on anxiety meds. It only happens very situationally now. The first few-” Another piece of plate, this one was larger. It worried Trini a little to see how large the piece was. “Panic attacks Diana helped us through them and taught us how to care for the other in a situation where she wasn’t around.”

Maddy moved on the other foot and signaled for Trini to continue talking. “With our past, neither of us likes to be touched in that state of panic so we tell stories. It doesn’t-” Maddy pulled out another piece of the plate; this one was the same size as the large piece that came out of the other foot. “Matter if we’ve heard the story before. According to Diana, it helps to bring your focus to something else. Touch can do that for some people too, but you have to take in why the person might be panicking. If they’re panicking because of a fear of being yelled at or from being yelled at silence and touch is better.”

Maddy hummed, “So it’s always situational?”

“Yes.” Maddy pulled out the final piece and started to clean and bandage Trini’s feet. “It takes a lot of learning and observation.”

“You’re very good at it. I may have been a nurse, but I wasn’t for long and they don’t teach you a lot about panic attacks. I don’t know how to handle them.” Maddy looked at Kim and smiled. “I’m glad she has you.”

Kim smirked, “You won’t be when I beat you at Mario Kart.”

Maddy looked at Trini shocked as she helped her down from the counter. Trini winced as her feet touched the ground. “You taught Kim how to play? She can barely stay on the road.”

Trini smirked, “It’s my job to know how to play Mario Kart.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m a Twitch streamer. I play video games; that’s how I met Kim.”

“You’re a celebrity?” Trini nodded. “But you’re so nice.”

Trini laughed, “I do a lot of work with the organization that my mom set up. I don’t know if you were listening but I was at an orphanage from ages seven to fifteen. My story is that they abused my brother and I and only my brother and I for eight years before Diana adopted us.” Maddy’s face was still in shock. “I did some streams for charity and people seemed to like it so I made it my career.”

Trini wasn’t done, “For me to be rude, mean, or act on top of the world goes against so much I believe in. Zack and I don’t interact much with the other parts of the community or with a lot of other celebrities because if I’m honest people haven’t been the best to us in our lives. We stick to our own. We don’t get influenced by what other people are doing and we don’t immerse ourselves in that world.”

Maddy went to hug Trini before she paused, “Can I hug you?” Trini nodded and Maddy pulled her into a hug. 

Kim’s stomach grumbled and Trini broke the hug to look at Maddy. “I remember someone needing pancakes.” 

Maddy went back to making pancakes. This time Trini brought out the plates to set them on the table. Kim brought out the butter and syrup. When Kim and Trini were done setting the table Kim hugged Trini tightly with a “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Being you. Helping me through my panic attack.”

“No problem. Anytime. Do you need anything?”

“A glass of water, maybe. I’m mostly waiting on the pancakes.”

Trini nodded and went to grab them both a glass of water and took Maddy and Ted’s drink orders. Trini brought the glasses back and Kim told her where to put each drink.

Maddy finished making the pancakes and brought them out. They had chocolate chips on them. Kim smiled at Trini and they ate, talking about Trini and telling some embarrassing stories about Kim that Kim groaned through. There was even the occasional story about Jason and Kim that Trini would for sure be telling Zack later. 

When dinner was over Trini offered to help clean up and Kim had to gently press Trini back into her chair to keep her from helping. Trini sat there and moped the whole time Kim and Maddy cleaned up. 

Ted challenged Trini to a Fifa match. “That’s a bad idea, Dad.”

Trini got the challenging glint in her eye. “One game. No rematches.” Ted smiled and shook Trini’s hand. Kim rolled her eyes but Maddy and Kim both followed them to the living room. Ted turned on the Xbox and brought up Fifa.

Trini and Ted both chose their preferred teams and hit play. Ted started to win in the beginning but Trini quickly shot that down and held her lead until the end of the game. 

Trini did a little victory dance and there were smiles all around. Trini eventually had to sit back down because her feet were bothering her and she could no longer do her victory dance. Ted and Trini talked about game tactics as Kim and Maddy watched both with the same ‘This dork.’ look in their eyes. 

Ted eventually had to leave for work and Trini and Kim were reminded by how early it really was. Maddy still had time before she had to go, having switched her hours to start later. Kim went upstairs saying that she would be taking a nap and kissed Trini on the cheek before leaving. 

Trini and Kim were both sitting on the couch, the tv now playing the weather. Trini was very happy to know that it was clear for the rest of the week. Kim, Trini, Jason, and Zack could go to the park at some point. Trini and Zack had their scheduled stream tomorrow, but they were both free on Thursday and the park would be dry by then. Trini texted those plans to Zack so Zack could check with Jason. Trini would have to ask Kim when she woke up.

When the weather was over Maddy muted the tv and looked at Trini who had raised a brow in question. Maddy looked slightly nervous. “I don’t know what to do when Kim comes to Ted and I with a nightmare or has a panic attack. She’s in the process of moving here to stay and I don’t know how to help her. You seem good with this stuff and what you said back when I was doing your bandages, which I should check before I go, was really helpful.”

Trini’s expression turned soft and went to give full attention to Maddy. Trini shuffled so she was sitting criss-cross on the couch, facing Maddy. “She’ll tell you what she needs, you just have to ask. One thing I noticed was when Kim told you she had a nightmare, your first question was ‘Are you okay?’ that’s not the best question to ask. I haven’t been okay for fifteen years and I’m here and I’m living despite everything that’s happened and the points where I didn’t want to.”

Now was Trini’s time to rant about all of the things that she can do to make Kim feel better. “She doesn’t need to be okay. It’s only been a year. There are highs and lows. The best thing you can do is ask ‘What do you need?’ she can tell you honestly what she needs, she’ll tell you if she wants to talk, you can ask ‘Do you want to talk about it?’ because maybe she does and she just needs that opening.

“You don’t have to be okay to be here and be present. You don’t have to be okay to smile and have fun. My go-to is always ‘What do you need?’ you can’t help her if she doesn’t tell you what she needs, but she doesn’t need to be okay.”

Maddy wasn’t expecting the honesty that she had received. “So by asking her ‘What do you need?’ she can answer more honestly without feeling like she has to be okay or has to tell me what’s going on.”

Trini nodded and smiled, “Bingo.” Trini grabbed a post-it from the table and clicked the pen that was next to it. “Here’s my number if you have any questions. It takes a lot to get used to asking the right questions. You can still say ‘Are you okay?’ in the physical sense, but for the mental sense.” Trini shook her head as she handed the post-it to Maddy. “Just be there for her. If you want to get advice from a parent I also put Diana’s number below mine. I’ll send her a text saying that you have her number. She’s great at it and can probably help you more than I can.”

Maddy made an action to bring Trini into a hug and waited for a nod from Trini before bringing her into a hug. Trini looked at her bandaged feet and noticed a small spec of blood coming through. Maddy noticed, “Let’s get those changed before I have to leave, yeah?”

“Yes, ma’am.” It was going to be hard for Trini to beat that habit. “Maddy.”

Trini sat up on the counter and Maddy washed her hands. “I may like you, Trini but if you hurt my daughter-”

“I know, ma’am. I don’t really want to hear the threats with my past, but I understand completely.”

Maddy hummed and grabbed the towel to dry off her hands, “You know when I found you in Kim’s bed this morning I was expecting to chase you out with a broom.” Maddy checked to make sure that Trini was okay with that, Trini was laughing and Maddy noted that as a good sign. “I was a bit relieved to hear that you only came over to comfort Kim after a nightmare,” Maddy locked eyes with Trini. “Right?”

“Of course, ma’am. One doesn’t drive over in Bulbasaur pajamas for nothing.” Maddy glared at Trini. Trini gulped, “I’ve never-” Trini made hand gestures, hoping that Maddy would understand.

“You’re what twenty-two and you’ve never had sex?”

Trini was put off by the question. What kind of mother asks their daughter’s girlfriend that kind of question. Maddy only continued to stare at Trini, she expected an answer. Trini sighed, she had to say the truth. “Consensually.”

Maddy was not expecting the answer that she was given. Maddy felt bad for pushing. “I’m-”

“Look, don’t say sorry. I told you, I have a past. That’s just part of it that I don’t share that often. You’re a lawyer and you know what that means. Most of them are in prison and that makes me feel better.”

Maddy went into lawyer mode, “Most of them?”

Trini felt small as Maddy cleaned the cuts on her feet. “Some of them happened when I was young, at the orphanage. I don’t even know their names and there’s no use in trying to find them. There’s not any evidence. We both know how courts go on cases like this. All of the ones that happened outside the orphanage are in prison.”

Maddy went to grab the new bandages, “How old were you?”

Trini laughed. “The first time? Nine.”

Maddy paused all her movements. “Nine?”

Trini nodded, but once again tried to make herself small. She laughed to relieve some tension earlier but knew better than to do so this time. “Nine. I was, uh, locked in the cabinets at night and sometimes for weeks at a time. Some of the older guys in the orphanage thought it would be easy.” Trini looked at the cabinets as she spoke, she didn’t go into a panic because Maddy was helping her injuries instead of ignoring them, but her breath did quicken slightly.

“What do you need?” Maddy was learning. 

“Water, cold.” Maddy nodded and went to grab her a glass of water. 

Maddy handed the glass over to Trini who drank the water in small amounts. “I have to leave for work. I would suggest that you join Kim in her nap.” Maddy took one last look at Trini before “I’m glad it’s you.” and Maddy left for work.

Trini was confused by that before she remembered that she was technically here as Kim’s girlfriend. Trini internally winced at the words even as they played in her head. Trini carefully went over to the couch and pulled out her phone, sent a text to Diana, and closed her eyes for a short second. 

-

“Hey, pengting. It’s lunchtime and I know how much you love food. I ordered pizza.” Kim spoke softly. 

Trini woke up groggily and spoke in a sleepy voice, “Morning, princess.” Trini brought Kim’s face to her lips to kiss her cheek and Kim giggled. 

“How are your feet?”

Trini wiggled her toes, “Better. Maddy re-wrapped them before she left for work.”

“Alright, pengting. I’m going to carry you.” Kim waited for a nod, but it never came. 

Trini shook her head, “Nope. I want my koala hug first.”

Kim pouted but opened her arms for Trini to jump into them When Trini was securely wrapped around her front Kim asked, “Better?”

“Much. You’re really soft and you smell nice and I really like touching you.” Trini blushed, “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just really tactile and you always feel nice.”

Kim had walked with Trini to the kitchen and placed her on the counter. Trini didn’t even notice that Kim had started walking. Kim pulled back to look at Trini’s face and scanned her eyes. “I’m going to kiss you, for real.” Kim waited and Trini wasn’t moving. Kim leaned in to press her lips against Trini’s and Trini kissed back. 

Kim was so focused on the kiss that she didn’t notice how her body was naturally reacting. Trini broke the kiss. “Stop.” Kim immediately froze. “Sorry, just went a little too far. Don’t do that.”

Kim realized their positions. Kim’s hips were pressed in between Trini’s legs. Kim backed up. “Shit, Trin. Sorry, I didn’t even realize.”

Trini smiled, “So what was that?”

“I wanted to kiss you, You were being all cute talking about how tactile you are and how you like to hug me. I know that we were pretending, but I really want this to be for real. I really like you.” 

Trini had a tear stream down her face. “Are you sure? I have a lot of baggage.”

Kim laughed, “So do I, pengting.”

Trini hummed, “So now I get to stare at your abs?” Trini half-joked, half really wanted to know. She really liked Kim’s abs. Trini’s eyes drifted down to Kim’s abs.

Kim laughed again, “Sure, Trin.” Kim looked at the shirt that Trini was wearing. “I like seeing you in my clothes.” Kim looked Trini up and down. “Especially ones that have my name on them.”

Trini could understand that she had seen Kim wearing her jersey, her hoodie. It was an enjoyable experience. Trini leaned in to give Kim a peck. The doorbell rang and Trini stayed on the counter, her feet were hurting. Kim tipped the pizza girl an insane amount and took the pizza inside. “Did you just tip the pizza girl five-hundred dollars?”

Kim shrugged, “Yes? I have the money, it’s not like I need it.”

“I usually only tip one-hundred, but I guess the possibilities are endless.”

Kim’s phone beeped and Kim took it out of her pocket. “The possibilities are always endless, pengting.” Kim paused reading the message. “How are your feet?”

“They still hurt. A lot.” 

Kim frowned, “Mom said I should change the bandages in an hour. I don’t really know what else I can do.”

Trini shook her head. “I’ll be fine. I guess I shouldn’t walk on them too much for a while. They should heal in about two days.”

“How do you know that?” Trini raised a brow, “Oh, right. Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry, princess. Now give me some pizza?” Kim looked to Trini with a smirk, Trini rolled her eyes. “Please?”

Kim handed Trini two slices of pizza. “Here you go.”

Trini took the food, “Thank you.” Trini ate the pizza so quickly that she practically inhaled it. Kim took her time. They didn’t talk, Trini was too busy inhaling pizza, they didn’t need to talk anyway. They were both comfortable in the silence. When they were both done Kim put the plates in the dishwasher and grabbed them both water.

“What do you want to do?” 

Trini looked around, thinking. “I’m not really sure. Can we talk more about this? Us?”

Kim nodded, “Yeah.”

Trini took a second to compile some thoughts, “I’m still not very comfortable with the term ‘girlfriend’ but I really can’t think of anything other than ‘partner’ but we’re not fifty. I like you, I really do.” Trini brought Kim in for a little peck, “I need this to be taken slow, I have a lot of relationship trauma, which I’m guessing that you can understand.”

“I want to do this right. I did already take you on a date. I want to take this slow too. My last relationship-” Kim shuddered, “Was not healthy.”

“We just need to talk, princesa.”

Kim pulled out her phone and typed a few words and started reading off a list, “Significant other, partner, lover-” Kim cringed at that one, “datefriend, personfriend, my person, my boo,” Kim switched into her full accent, “Datemate, babefriend,” 

Trini perked up, “Those last two. I like those.”

Kim looked up from her phone only to see the biggest smile on Trini’s face. Not switching out of her accent Kim spoke, “Was it the accent?”

“Nope. Well, the first one, but the second sounds great in my head without the accent.”

“You like ‘babefriend’?” Kim quirked a brow at Trini.

“Yes? Don’t judge me here, Kim.”

Kim held up a finger, “Just teasing, never judging.”

Trini nodded, in thought. “And you? You’re fine with ‘girlfriend’?”

“More than.” Kim pecked Trini. “If you think of or find anything else, let me know, okay?”

Trini smiled, “Yeah. I’ve never been given the option before Tommy never cared about anything I said and Kira was just trying to fuck me, for lack of better words.”

Kim cupped Trini’s face, making Trini look directly into Kim’s eyes. “You have me now,” Kim kissed Trini’s nose. “What else should we do today?”

Trini remembered something, “I told Zack that we could play soccer on Thursday, are you free?”

“Pengting, I’m always free.” 

“I really like that.”

Kim smiled, “What?”

“Pengting.”

Kim smirked, “I know.”

“Wow, Kimberly. Here I thought I never told you.”

“Fine, Trinidad. No cuddles for you.”

Trini held her arms out trying to grab Kim. “Fine. I’m sorry okay. Carry me to the couch for cuddles?”

Kim rolled her eyes, “And you call me ‘princess’.” Ignoring her own words Kim picked up Trini and brought her to the couch. “Where do I go?” Kim pouted.

Trini gestured to herself, “Here.”

Kim laid herself on top of Trini, “Is this even comfortable for you?”

Trini started to play with Kim’s hair, “Yeah, you?”

Kim hummed, “I’m very comfortable. I could fall asleep again.”

“When do your parents get home?”

“In a while. I need to change your bandages in like a half-hour.” Kim called out to an Alexa in the house to set a timer. Kim got a response of ‘Timer set for thirty minutes’ then the Alexa went on to talk about how you can change the sound of your alarms in the Alexa app. “Now we can do whatever and Alexa will tell us when it’s time.”

“Nice.” Trini turned on the tv and set it mute on cartoons. They both quickly fell asleep.

-

“Alexa, stop!” 

Trini woke up to an alarm as Kim yelled at Alexa, poor Alexa. “Kimmy, carry me to the kitchen?”

“Fine. Latch onto me c’mon.” Trini listened immediately and latched onto Kim and Kim carried her to what was becoming her spot on the counter. Kim washed her hands after she set Trini on the counter. “Okay; bandages off, bandages get put in the trash, clean wounds, rebandage.” Kim put a thinner bandage on so that the cuts would be able to air out more.

“Thank you, princess. Come in for a kiss.” Kim obliged and gave Trini a kiss. Neither of them deepened the kiss, both content in their actions.

“Kip?”

“Huh?”

Kim cleared her throat, speaking in her accent had brought out familiar terms. “It means nap.”

“Oh, okay. Let’s go to your room this time. That couch is not as comfortable as Zack and I’s are.”

Kim chuckled, “Okay, but your house is built so you can take a nap on any surface.”

“That’s the goal, Kimmy.” Trini pouted, “Carry me?”

“Of course.” Kim picked up Trini to bring her up the stairs, “Don’t get used to this, I’m only doing this because you’re injured.”

“I know. I like this, but I also like walking places on my own. I won’t need this after the cuts oxidate and heal over.”

Kim had to set Trini down to open her door and Trini just walked in on her own. She liked being carried but being carried everywhere was not fun. Trini flopped on the bed after grabbing the tiger.

“Pineapple! The betrayal!”

“Oh yeah, princess. What’re you going to do about it?”

“This.” Kim leaned down to kiss Trini and when Trini loosened her grip on Pineapple, Kim replaced Pineapple with herself. “Much better.” 

They drifted back into sleep easily being in a much more comfortable space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just didn't want to wait any longer, sorry the fake dating part was cut a bit short. I wrote the character so much trauma and I didn't want them to stress about lies or anything.
> 
> Let me know if you have any good ideas for Trini to be called other than 'girlfriend' I looked at so many lists, there really aren't any good titles for it that are gender-neutral. I thought 'datemate' would be fun and it would go well with Kim's English side. From now on just expect that Kim is talking in her accent. 
> 
> If something doesn't make sense, let me know.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any ideas for fics or anything lmk also tell me if you're waiting for something else to be updated and tell me what because I have a bunch of half-written drafts to finish.
> 
> I'm not even trying to make these fics short at this point. You get what you get.


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